


Titanomachy

by TheLandMaster



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types, Titanfall (Video Games)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Clone Wars, Crossover, Gen, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:48:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 24,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27297418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLandMaster/pseuds/TheLandMaster
Summary: A narrow escape sees an entire fleet of the Militia Army dragged from the Frontier and into a galaxy far, far away. And it seems in the end, war awaits them no matter the destination. But the Sentinel Corps are steadfast, and Commander Elyse will make sure her people prevail. After all, they have the help of Titans... But will it be enough?
Comments: 16
Kudos: 27





	1. Chapter 1

**PLANET NIBELUNGEN – ARES DIVISION RESEARCH FACILITY 4-0**

“ _The Liberator’s reporting damage in lower decks four through seven!_ ”

“ _Fighter wing five wiped out! Wing six is asking for reinforcements!_ ”

“ _We got Titans coming in from the northwest, they’re hitting us hard!_ ”

“ _The tenth battalion’s through the second checkpoint, they just need some more time!_ ”

“ _Pilot Henders is down! Dammit, someone kill that Northstar already!_ ”

“Teams Romero and Aurea, head to the northwest gate! Drop some Specter pods on the southeast barricade and reinforce our troops there! We’re almost off this rock!”

Elyse growled as the flood of voices barraged her comm link, only interrupted by the cacophony of rounds pelting against her Monarch’s hull. A Reaper mech leapt over the wall she was using as cover, but quickly met its end when Elyse kicked the wreckage of a car into it before emptying what remained of ammo on her chaingun onto the robot. With a loud electronic roar, the machine exploded in a ball of plasma and flame as the silver Monarch Titan ran past it while placing a fresh drum into its weapon.

Four hours. They had been at this for four hours, and now it was starting to finally end. The packages were being moved to the _Heimdall_ , and as soon as the survivors were loaded they’d lift off and leave this God-forsaken planet behind, and the Ares Division with it.

“ **WARNING. ENEMY TITAN INCOMING** ”

“Goddammit—FUCK!!”

Her very-much unprofessional language being the response to a Ronin Titan phasing into existence mere meters away from her position, swinging its sword down and almost slicing her rifle in half. With grit teeth, Elyse raised the XO16A2 Chaingun and held down the trigger, hosing a hail of Arc-Charged rounds at the light Titan.

The Ronin, unfettered, raised its blade with its flat side outwards, blocking several of the shots aimed at its torso. Some still did strike, but the shields held the ones that got past the impromptu barrier and making the blue barrier flicker around the lithe Titan. Suddenly, it lunged forward, aiming the blade tip-first at the rifle, and before Elyse could react the sword sunk all the way to the hilt, nearly taking the Monarch’s hands alongside it.

Before the Ronin could back away, Elyse took aim with both her Monarch’s missile pods and rammed down on the firing button, sending forth two dozen high-explosive warheads at the exposed enemy. With no Phase Dash to vanish away, and its blade stuck inside the bifurcated rifle, the Ronin was struck with the full force of the missiles and disappeared in a massive fireball, the wrecked rifle falling to the ground with a loud clang.

But the Monarch did not mark the target as destroyed.

Without hesitation, Elyse charged forward towards the smoke cloud, scooping the fallen sword as she passed and ripping the stuck chaingun from the blade. And indeed, as soon as she entered the cloud, her Titan was struck thrice by the familiar impact of a Leadwall discharge, dropping her shields down to zero and nicking the armor of her Titan in several places. The camera feed fizzled and glitched, but thankfully remained intact, allowing the pilot to see the flaming and damaged Ronin tried to replace the weapon’s drum with a fresh one, but it had been too slow. In desperation, it tried to boost back, only to hit a wall behind it.

With a boost of her own, Elyse charged at the enemy Titan and spun, swatting aside the shotgun and exposing the Ronin’s torso before finishing the movement and ramming the sword into the Titan’s side. Metal groaned and flames licked over the blade and the Monarch’s hands as the Ronin nearly came undone from the attack, its arms slackening as the whole mech sagged on its feet.

“Out of my way, damn you!” roared the woman as she reared back the Monarch’s fist and punched clean through the Ronin’s front, and when the hand returned, it held in its grasp a dazed but still alive IMC pilot.

 _SQUELCH_.

Who, with a tightening of the hand, became nothing more than red paste and some dripping blood on the Monarch’s fingers.

Letting out a breath she did not realize she had been holding, Elyse relaxed her and her Titan’s posture, thumbing through several of the readouts of her Titan’s status.

Hull integrity at 72%... Missile payload down to one salvo on each launcher… Shield emitters still working, reactor stable… It was the miracle of her life that her Titan was still this intact.

Now she needed an even greater one to get her people out of this planet alive.

“… _\--mander, can yo…ar me?”_

Her radio crackled to life with the garbled voice of her squad mate, Harper, static making him barely hearable. With a few smacks to the panel and some button presses on the equipment, the audio began clearing up. “Harper, can you hear me?”

“ _—ait, ju… --ere, got it!_ ”. Quickly, the static vanished, and the channel became a clear connection between both Titans. “ _Finally, there we go… My comms array got a bit shot up, had to reroute through the helmet”_

“What’s your position, Harper?”

“ _One moment”_

Before Elyse could question him further, her Titan and the world around her shook violently when _something_ crashed down like a meteor a few meters away. Dust and gravel kicked up into the air in a thick cloud, revealing only a large black blob behind the brown and grey mist. The shape became taller as whatever it was rose to its full height, before something flew through the debris cloud and landed just short of the Monarch: a thoroughly demolished Tier 2 Atlas, with a massive hole through its torso and one arm missing.

And from the cloud walked out a white-and-red Legion, its Predator Cannon spinning to a stop as the Titan threw aside the spent ammo box and clicked in a fresh one. Steam hissed from the mech’s torso before the hatch opened, allowing a Pilot clad in an IMC Rifleman Pilot rig to stand up and give a two-finger salute to Elyse.

“Pilot Harper, reporting for duty ma’am” said the man in a playful tone before taking a glance at the wreckage of the Ronin then to the Monarch’s bloody hand. “Had an uninvited guest?”

“Something like that” replied the woman as she moved towards the destroyed Atlas, ripping the XOTBR16 chaingun from the older model’s remaining hand. She pulled the cylinder out to make sure it still had ammunition, locked it back and for good measure, took the remaining two that remained intact on the Atlas. “Status report, pilot”

“Tenth battalion just got to the second checkpoint, they’re on their way to the _Hippolyta_ with the packages”.

“And the rest of our forces?”.

“Pulling back to assigned evacuation zones”.

“Good. Then we’re heading back to the _Hippolyta_ ” said Elyse as she ripped the Ronin’s sword from its owner and sheathed it on the Monarch’s back, onto the magnetic holster. With a few button presses, her frequency changed back to the entirety of their forces. “To all Sentinel Aegis forces, the packages are secure. Fall back and prepare for extraction. Elyse out”.

“Lead on, commander” said Harper, and thus both took off, the Legion and Monarch stomping towards the landing area of the facility.

**-O-**

**ARES DIVISION RESEARCH FACILITY 4-0 – LANDING BAY THREE**

The _Hippolyta_ was, in the words of Elyse, “a thing of beauty”. Taken while fresh from the IMC’s production line, the Draconis-class heavy transport had been customized from the ground with any tech that the Militia got their hands on: more powerful engines, a top-of-the-line shield system, the addition of heavier guns and a more powerful jump drive, even a freshly-created cloaking system. The commander had more than once rubbed onto Kuben Blisk’s face that her ship humiliated his _Draconis_ , a claim that was responded either with indifference or, in one particularly memorable occasion to the crew of Elyse’s ship, with a very animated and intense brawl.

She kept hearing from the crew that her nose was still crooked, even after months.

But now, seeing it covered in scorch marks, and surrounded by the wrecks of numerous Titans or the abandoned bodies of Spectres, Stalkers, Reapers and Pilots, its crew felt nothing but hatred for ARES, and disappointment in themselves.

The only thing that could keep their spirits still propped was the sight of the small containment units being hauled up the ship’s ramp, guarded by every intact Titan the 10th Battalion still had operational and squads of Spectres lead by T.E.C. Pilots. Proof that their mission had been a success, even with the high cost of life.

At the foot of the ramp stood a Tone Prime, sweeping the area with its 40mm cannon. On its back, a crouched Cloak Pilot peered through the scope of a Double Take rifle. “Hurry up with those things, ARES could be back any minute now” he said aloud, knowing his helmet’s built-in comm would pick it up.

“ _I doubt it_ ” came the reply from one of the Pilots on the ground. “ _It cost us blood, but we managed to trick them into heading to Landing Bay Eight. They think we’re loading nukes to take off-world”_

“Wait, WHAT?!” came the horrified cry from the Cloak Pilot, his head snapping around to glare at one T.E.C. Pilot that had just flinched from the assault to his ear.

“ _Damn, easy on the voice there, Gardner!”_

“Talk before I point this thing at YOU and not the ARES!”

“ _Look, we found out these guys had some warheads stashed in a bunker nearby. A few units volunteered to raid the place and draw fire from some hot-zones, then to make ARES think we got some of the nukes and planned to steal them. As far as they know, Bay Eight is a priority target filled with nuclear weapons, and we’re just a bunch of runners_ ”

The Cloak Pilot let out a growl of frustration, but at this point, what could he say? Volunteers were volunteers, and by now either they were dead or evacuated. All he could do was hope for the latter, rather than the former…

“ **PILOT, FRIENDLY TITANS APPROACHING. ENEMIES FOLLOWING.** ” called out his own mech, snapping its aim to one of the tunnels leading to the landing area. And indeed, not a moment later, a silver-colored Monarch with a hoplite helm and spear painted on the front, and a white-and-red Legion with a devil’s skull on its hatch emerged from said tunnel in a mad dash towards the _Hippolyta_ , firing their weapons wildly behind them as they ran. Gardner recognized the emblems immediately.

“Commander…?”

“GET THE SHIP IN THE AIR _NOW_!” came the scream from the Monarch’s speakers as it fired one last salvo of missiles behind itself, at what was now revealed to be a large mob of Reapers and Titans, chasing down and firing back the escaping two.

As the remaining forces clambered up the ramp, dragging with them the massive polygonal spheres, Gardner opened the access hatch atop his Titan and slipped into the cockpit, quickly syncing it up to his implant.

“ **TONE SYSTEMS TRANSFERRED TO PILOT. ROCKET SYSTEMS ARE IN YOUR CONTROL** ”. With one flick of the trigger, the aiming reticle switched and began lightly trembling as it followed his line of sight. Gardner pressed down on the trigger, and the Tone Prime’s chassis groaned as, like a wall of destruction, seventy two wire-guided missiles shot out from the Titan’s pods and streaked through the air, guided by eye-sight around the allied Monarch and Legion and onto the mechanical horde approaching the two.

Elyse and Harper did not stop to see if the attack had been successful. They simply ran, boost-dashing past the wall of missiles and up the ramp, Gardner coming up just a moment after. “Seal the ramp, get her up in the air!” he barked into his comm, and indeed the massive metal slab rose from the ground and closed the entrance the three had gone through. The metal structure rumbled and trembled as rounds and missiles began pelting it, but the armor held easily. The rumbling only increased when the _Hippolyta_ ’s lower hull guns fired back with heavy railgun and laser shots, tearing apart any unfortunate machine or being that remained out of cover.

As soon as they reached the Titan berths, the three pilots opened their hatches and jumped to the ground below, leaving the AIs to dock the mechs as they thundered down the halls towards the bridge, passing by equally frantic crewmembers. In mere seconds they had gotten to the bridge, Elyse quickly jumping to the command chair. “Get us out of here, full speed!”

“Aye, ma’am!”

With a deafening roar, the _Hippolyta’s_ engines flared to life and raised the massive warship into the skies, its shields barely flaring as Titan-grade munitions peppered its hull before it flew too far to be reached, soon becoming nothing more than an orange dot in the distance.

**-O-**

**ARES DIVISION RESEARCH FACILITY 4-0 – HEADQUARTERS, MAIN CONTROL CENTER**

The IMC workers at the control center spouted off frantic warnings of security breaches or still-remaining forces covering escaping Militia transports. The most preoccupying being the reports of some rag-tag group making off with a sizeable nuclear arsenal. ARES had poured every Titan, troop and bullet they could spare at the perpetrators, but they had been too determined, suicidally so. And so all ARES could do was watch as three Albatross dropships and one more transport, marked as the infamous _Rust Bucket_ , took to the skies and flew to meet the Militia’s Draconis-class transport towards their fleet.

And standing in the middle of the room, flanked by two Stalkers, with his arms behind his back and watching the monitors and windows with a cold, unflinching stare, was Maxwell Marder. General and de-facto leader of the entire ARES Division.

“Operator” he called out in his usual cool and collected tone of voice towards the closest person operating the consoles.

“Yes, general?”

“What is the status of the weapon?”

“It is operational, general, but… Its structural integrity is untested yet. Site Control reports they might only be able to fire one shot” answered the operator with a hint of nervousness, staring up at the still unmoving commanding officer. A moment of silence passed, before Marder motioned methodically towards the horizon.

“Ready the weapon. Target the Militia’s fleet”

Those words made the entire control center stop dead in their tracks, every man and woman staring in shock and horror at their commanding officer. “W-Wha… B-But sir, our ships are s-still locked in pursuit of them! If we fire now—”

“By the time we order an evacuation, the Militia will have realized our intentions and will take measures to evacuate. We will not allow these criminals to grasp victory. Is that clear?”

“… Yes, sir. Transmitting orders to Site Control”

And as the operator turned back to the screen, Marder kept his gaze onto the sky, at the exact spot the clouds had parted where the last Militia vessels had escaped from Nibelungen.

_I am sorry, my acquaintance… But your progeny will now join the common scum in the depths of hell._

**-O-**

On the surface of Nibelungen, far away from the battlefield of the Militia and IMC, stood seven rings aligned one in front of the other. Built onto a chain of mountains, these monoliths bore no resemblance to the architecture of either faction that populated the Frontier. Indeed, with its stone-like exterior, pulsing green and blue lines and graceful merging to the mountainside, one could be led to believe these rings had been grown from the planet itself.

And one by one, they began to spin, a deafening hum filling the air as massive pulses of energy began travelling through the seven circles, aimed towards space at its unsuspecting victim…

**_WARNING. VARIABLE FOLD WEAPON FIRING SEQUENCE INITIATED. STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY COMPROMISED, ALL PERSONNEL EVACUATE._ **

For indeed, these rings promised naught but death.

**-O-**

**OUTER EDGE OF NIBELUNGEN’S ORBIT – MILITIA’S 5 TH FLEET, AKA SENTINEL CORPS**

“How much longer until we can jump?”

“A few more minutes, commander! We’re making the final adjustments!”

Elyse grit her teeth and clenched her fist in frustration, staring at what remained of her fleet as it formed up around their flagship, the _Avalanche_ , readying themselves for the moment their jump drives charged and gave them freedom at last from the battle. Behind the fleet, IMC vessels fired their weapons non-stop at the retreating Militia ships, some shots glancing or even hitting outright their over-stressed shields. Elyse watched as one of their ships, the Malta-class battleship _Fearless_ , was struck between its engines and broke apart in a ball of fire and broken metal. “God fucking dammit, HOW MUCH MORE?!”

“ _Final calculations being readied, three minutes until jump_ ” came the machine monotone of the _Avalanche_ ’s Spyglass CO through the hologram being projected next to the commander, the transmission faltering slightly as another heavy round impacted the massive dreadnought, though thankfully its shields held.

Just a little longer… Just a little more, and they’d escape…

“ _Warning. Massive energy signature detected, originating from the planet’s surface_ ”.

Elyse’s spine went ramrod as she stared incredulously at the hologram as its hands flew over an unseen keyboard, before turning to stare at the visual of the planet they had just abandoned.

And there, right on the northern hemisphere, she saw it. A massive blue light, growing brighter by the second.

“Get us out of here, GET US OUT OF HERE NOW! ORDER THE FLEET TO JUMP!”

“ _Commander, final calculations are still not complete—_ ”

“I DON’T CARE, JUMP RIGHT THE FUCK NOW!”

The screamed order barely left her lips before the light shot out from the planet, forming a massive white-and-blue beam that broke apart space and reality around itself as it flew out towards its target.

The Sentinel Corps fleet.

“SHATTER, JUMP RIGHT THE FUCK—”

“ _Jump initiated, all hands brace_ ”

Behind them, the IMC fleet had but a few scant seconds to dodge from the beam’s path, and while some of the smaller or more agile vessels managed to pull away, the rest were not so lucky. The beam carved right through them, peeling the warships apart layer by layer as space and time shattered like glass with each struck vessel.

Moments before the beam struck them, the 5th Fleet’s ships jump drives discharged their own space-time-bending particles, intending to catapult the armada to a vaguely calculated location. The resulting contact of the beam’s and the fleet’s spatial distortions served to create exotic energies and matters never before witnessed by the science of the 25th century as the space-time continuum was churned and twisted like a liquid in that singular spot, followed by a multi-colored shockwave erupting at ground zero of the explosion and washing over Nibelungen and its three moons.

Two of them were destroyed by the event known as the “Frontier’s Roar”, the planet itself suffering catastrophic orbital shifts that forced any surviving IMC and ARES forces to evacuate. For the following forty years, Nibelungen would become nothing more than a blasted wasteland, destroyed by the fragments of its own satellites and the spatial distortion resultant from the firing of the alien weapon in its surface.

General Marder survived the ordeal, but lost the use of his legs and his entire left arm.

The Sentinel Corps fleet, meanwhile, was declared Missing in Action with all hands, with Militia High Command unable to ascertain its final fate.

And so it would go, with the Milky Way never learning of the end that befell the 5th Fleet and its survivors…

**-O-**

**OUTER RIM – HYPERSPACE LANE – EN ROUTE TO PLANET RUGOSA**

Aboard a _Consular-_ class C70 Combat Refit Cruiser, Clone Captain Zak walked calmly towards the main quarters of the ship, passing by what little crew the ship possessed until he reached the unremarkable door that now separated him from one of the galaxy’s wisest beings. The captain knocked once, and in response the door opened, allowing the clone to walk inside the room and salute the diminutive figure sitting in meditation while floating in the air.

“General, we’re approaching the planet Rugosa and will arrive in a few minutes” spoke the captain quickly and professionally, his posture at attention. His response was a low, accepting grunt, as the figure slowly hovered back to the floor and stood to their still unassuming height, picking up their branch-like walking stick.

“Hmm… Thank you, captain” finally replied the small green alien, as he turned to face the clone that unwillingly towered over him. “Then to the bridge, we shall go, hm?”

“Of course, general”

And so, Captain Zak led his current ward, Jedi Master Yoda, towards the bridge of his vessel, in preparation for his meeting with the ruler of Toydaria, King Katuunko.

**-O-**

**A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…**

**STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS**

**TITANOMACHY**

**~O~**


	2. Chapter 2

**Oh look, an update. When did this get here?**

**In all seriousness though. This got… A LOT of traction.**

**I… I’m so damn happy, folks.**

**Thank you so much, everyone. Especially at the SpaceBattles Forum. You guys have been AMAZING with the feedback.**

**Well, enough dilly-dally! Let us… Begin.**

**~O~**

**UNKNOWN LOCATION – MEDBAY OF THE IMS _HIPPOLYTA_ \-- EIGHT HOURS AFTER EMERGENCY JUMP**

Elyse had gone through her fair share of hangovers, reentries, concussions and bar fights, so headaches were something she had grown quite accustomed to. According to the ship doctor, it was decidedly _not_ a healthy thing to happen, but at this point it was a useless argument.

So imagine her surprise when she was hit by the absolute WORTH headache of her entire life as she rose from the bed with a pained growl, one hand propping her body up and the other clutching the side of her head. Thankfully, there was no bright light shining onto her eyes, an abundance of noise or someone pushing her down saying “Whoa, don’t get up yet!” or something stupid like that. Instead, a greeting she had grown somewhat… Fond of.

“Look at that, she’s awake,” quipped an aged-sounding voice from somewhere in the room. After a short moment to let the jackhammer inside her brain calm down a bit, Elyse searched the modestly-lit from where the familiar voice was, and quickly found its source leaning over a cluttered table in the corner of the med-bay, tinkering with a terminal and a few boxes of medical supplies. “Welcome back to the world of the living, commander. Glad to see you’re still a light sleeper,” spoke up the _Hippolyta’s_ chief medical officer, Doctor Roman Hahn.

“Hey there doc,” replied the commander of the Sentinel Corps with a smile, now fully sitting in the bed and with her legs hanging off the edge. “So, how bad was it this time? Did you need to break out the good drugs?”

At that comment, the doctor chuckled, closing the box he had been tinkering with before grabbing a cane resting to the side and hobbling towards his superior. “Well, you took a while to get up. Definitely had me a bit worried this time, but I can say you have a clean health bill.”

“Then what the hell’s this headache? Feels like I got ran over by a warship…”

“Well, that’s usually when happens when you end up going through an ultra-long jump. Spatial distortions end up messing with your brain functions, especially if you’re not used to them,” said the doctor calmly, placing a small plastic cylinder on a desk beside the medical bed. Inside were two blue-and-green pills, quite large, and some text imprinted information on the cylinder. “Here you go, freshly made. Take them if the headaches don’t subside in four hours.”

Elyse gave a thankful nod to the doctor, taking the container and stashing it inside one of the many pockets in her still grimy Pilot uniform. Something for later. “Thanks, doc. Any news on the rest of the fleet?”

And to her surprise, Roman’s expression grew somber, looking at his commander with a sadness she had seldom seen before. “… They’re waiting for you on the _Avalanche_ , Elyse. They’ll… Explain everything there.”

“Al… Right. Thanks, doc,” and with a quick swing off of the bed (and making sure that her sense of balance hadn’t been left behind in the jump), Elyse was off. Roman watched the woman leave, and only when her footsteps finally vanished did he let out a weary, tired sigh.

“I’m sorry, Elyse… You… Better hear this from someone better than me.”

**-O-**

**UNKNOWN LOCATION – 5 TH FLEET FLAGSHIP, _DOMINATION-_ CLASS DREADNOUGHT, _MCS AVALANCHE_**

The shuttle ride to the flagship of her fleet did not take long, thankfully. And it at least gave her some view of the state of the Sentinel Corps.

It pained her heart to see how many ships were missing. And the ones that remained bore the scars of the recent battle. As she had approached the hangar of the _Domination-class_ dreadnought, she saw the M-RVNs and repair crews working non-stop to patch holes and restore armor and weapons. There were even some Titans pacing alongside the hull, dragging heavy cargo or holding down large patches as the workers put them in place.

At the very least, the crew had been hard at work. If there’s one thing she knew the Sentinel Corps for, it was their unyielding drive and determination. In fact, it was probably the only reason they had gotten through VAULTBREAK at all.

The hangar and corridors had been just the same. A chaos of activity as debris was cleaned and carted away, damaged Spectre and Stalker units were piled to be repaired or recycled, and in a few rooms, bodies were laid as respectfully as they could, covered by black tarps and tended to by a few crestfallen crewmembers. All of them nodded or greeted Elyse as she passed, with nods, calls of name or salutes addressed to the commander, and which were equally returned.

But the entire way, Elyse saw that there was something… _Off_ about all the crew.

Like if their work was being done not only with the purpose of professionalism… But as coping? What had happened while she had been unconscious?

Not a few minutes later, Elyse found herself walking through the large, reinforced doors leading to the main CIC of the _Avalanche_. It was a massive room, large enough that several Legions could comfortably stay inside, and still have space to spare. Right in the middle stood a large table, with an equally large holographic emitter atop it projecting a 3-D representation of the 5th Fleet, with several of them shown as red and the word LOST above them. Surrounding the table were many men and women, all dressed in formal-looking uniforms with armor plating in several parts, some even with old and worn Pilot helmets upon the table in front of them, scars and bionics visible in their faces. One was even a simulacrum.

And of course, near her own seat stood Shatterglass, the _Avalanche_ ’s android commanding officer. Built onto the same Spectre-derived chassis as the IMC’s Spyglass, Shatter was a mobile AI platform that inhabited both the physical body standing amongst the massive group, and within the many, _many_ computers of the _Domination-class_ dreadnought.

In this room were gathered the twenty-four surviving captains of the Militia’s 9th Fleet, all awaiting the arrival of their commander, Elyse. And as soon as the woman walked into the room, twenty-three figures rose and saluted, with Shatterglass instead simply turning its head towards and her and giving a quick, mechanical nod. “Commander Elyse.”

“Shatterglass, captains. At ease,” she said calmly as she walked around the holo-table and sat herself down on her own chair. The captains seated themselves once more, their postures a bit more relaxed than before, but their expressions still hardened. Elyse looked around the room once more, and felt her chest tighten. “A lot of empty chairs…”

“We all knew the fate that might befall us when we accepted this mission, commander,” spoke Captain Alberte of the _Graves-class_ battlecruiser _Damocles_. “And it was that sacrifice that gave us a chance to succeed.”

“I am aware… But I wish I had more to show for it than the packages and… Well, this.”

“The probability of survival for the entire fleet during OPERATION VAULTBREAK was rated to 2.63%, with a variation of 1% above or below the stated threshold,” spoke up ARIES, the simulacrum that commanded the _Annapolis-class_ Factory Carrier _Athens_ , their tone completely level and devoid of emotion. “Under the given circumstances, our performance exceeded combat parameters. Your results are acceptable.”

“Thank you, captain,” replied Elyse with an uneasy smile. The commander let out a weary sigh, running a hand over her hair and brushing some stray locks away from her eyes, before straightening her posture. “Alright, give me a report of total losses. How is our combat force?”

Shatterglass quickly reacted, pressing a few buttons on a control panel in front of itself. In response, the hologram of the fleet shrunk, allowing several graphs to fill the space they occupied. All of them were blue disks, which began filing up with red at differing sizes. “Current losses total: 42% of capital ships, 49% of fighter wings, 31% of armored ground forces, 67% of mechanized infantry, 24% of Pilots, 40% of Titans and 18% of surviving ships’ crew.” The AI zoomed back once more onto the fleet, dismissing the many “SHIP LOST” markers and instead focusing on their remaining vessels, several of them having portions of their hulls marked in red. “Current remaining fleet is at a net 64% efficiency, with repairs calculated to be completed in twenty-four days with no access to drydocks, sixteen if proper installations are found.”

“Our resource stockpiles and production are thankfully plentiful and undamaged respectively,” added Deanna, captain of the _Orpheus_ , their _Liberty-class_ carrier. The woman took a long drag of her cigarette, letting the smoke eb from her mouth like a dragon about to breathe fire, and stared at Elyse with her augmented eyes. “We can easily return the fleet itself to full combat capacity, but in terms of our aerospace and ground forces, we must be careful. Otherwise, we’ll deplete ourselves quickly.”

“There is also the matter of our munitions,” continued Gedeon Raikov, of the _Koshelev_ , his accent thick and voice hoarse. “We have expended much, and must replenish it as well. We cannot overtax our factories.”

And throughout all of this, Elyse merely listened, even when the crushing feeling in her chest became even tighter, until Gedeon finished speaking and silence returned to the room. “Alright then… We’ll head to the closest Militia stronghold for repairs and resupply, then head back to Harmony and drop off the packages. What’s our current position?”

It was Elyse’s Pilot modifications that allowed her to see the reaction of all the gathered captains. Shuffling nervously, shifting in their seats, some even locking up and straightening their postures minutely. Even ARIES began twitching their head, switching his gaze to many points in the room. The one that didn’t react had been Shatterglass.

What the hell was going on here?

“Alright, first it was Roman, then the crew acting strange, and now all of you. What the hell happened while I was unconscious?” she finally asked, with a hint of steel behind her questioning. And to her frustration, none seemed willing to answer.

That is, until Shatterglass did.

“Commander, contact with Militia forces is currently, and for any future projections, impossible.”

… What?

Shatterglass did not wait for her to voice the confusion that she now expressed, and instead manipulated the hologram to instead show a representation of their fleet moments before leaving the space around Nibelungen. Behind them, the massive beam she had seen be shot from the planet, with readouts and scientific information she didn’t recognize or understood. “Before the fleet could perform its out-of-system jump, a spatial distortion several times the magnitude of the IMC’s Ark weapon was fired towards us,” spoke the AI, pointing to the blue stream that had wiped out so many of the ARES Division’s ships on its path towards the 5th Fleet. “Following your orders, we performed an uncalculated jump, with the intent of avoiding the unknown weapon. However, though the beam did not strike our vessels, it interacted with the distortion caused by our fleet-wide jump.” Like a recording being played, the hologram began moving, showing the beam slamming against an invisible bubble that seemed to surround their fleet, before the twenty-five ships jumped out of the system, represented by a large blue dot that began travelling forward.

And forward… And forward…

Elyse’s eyes widened and her mouth hung agape as the hologram zoomed out further and further, showing their fleet fly through the Frontier at ludicrous speeds, past any mapped space and into the outer arms of the Milky Way.

And then out of it.

Further and further away, until the dot stopped so far from their galaxy that it had become no bigger than the fleet’s marker.

“By approximated calculations, the attack overcharged the jump-drives of our ships by 6,707,243,449,002,323,076%. Using accepted parameters and observation data from external cameras and navigational data, it has been concluded that the 5th Fleet is no longer within the Milky Way galaxy, and have exceeded any theorized distance limit of a jump-drive. We have, from the count of approximately eight hours prior to this meeting, performed the first recorded trans-galactic jump, into an unknown galactic body. Without navigational data related to the galactic drift of our origin point and of this one, return to the Milky Way is impossible.”

…

Another… Galaxy…

It was only thanks to the discipline hammered into her head through years of Pilot training that Elyse managed to not pass out again, right there in front of all the captains. But still, that discipline only went so far, and the commander found herself slumping on her seat, staring wildly at the projected path they had taken. “… The crew… They…?”

“They already know,” said Deanna softly, her gaze cast down at the floor. “We… Made the announcement fleet-wide while you were unconscious.”

“We judged it to be the best course of action,” said the captain of the _Graves-_ class battlecruiser _Calamity,_ Islay. “If fleet-wide panic happened, then at least we’d prepone the possible consequences. And the fact we are nominally stranded… We counted on that assuaging thoughts of mutiny.” The other captains gave slow nods at those words, and through the fog of worry and restrained despair… Elyse knew it to be true. Better to gauge the fleet’s reactions now, when the environment was far more controlled.

“And I suppose the fact they’re throwing themselves at any work possible is the reason things haven’t… Collapsed into utter chaos, isn’t it?”

The nods she once again received as a response only served to acquiesce her emotions slightly. Her gaze was still focused on the image of their fleet hovering on an unknown star sector, the surviving souls of the fleet that had been entrusted to her.

What _could_ she do?

...

“… Shatterglass, are comms working?” she finally asked, her expression hardening with determination.

“Affirmative. Fleetwide communication were still operational post-jump.”

“Good… Patch me through all ships.”

**-O-**

**_ANNAPOLIS-_ CLASS MOBILE FACTORY, MCS _ATHENS_**

“T _o all of the fleet’s members, this is commander Elyse_.”

Aboard every ship, as one, every man, woman and machine stopped their work and turned to face the speakers and screens that now echoed the voice of their leader. They knew she had been unconscious for quite some time. Did she know?

“ _As you all have already been informed… And as have I, a few moments ago… We find ourselves in a situation never expected. We…_ ” the voice paused, faltering slightly and allowing the crew to hear a hitched breath through the comm link, followed by a deep sigh. “ _As of eight hours ago, following Operation VAULTBREAK, we have… Suffered an anomaly on our jump drives… That launched us into another galaxy._ ”

**-O-**

**_DEFENDER_ -CLASS ASSAULT CARRIER, MCS _HERCULES_**

“ _… And from all the information currently available to us… Said jump is irreversible. Meaning that the Frontier…_ ” Another hitched breath, another pause, much shorter than before. “ _That the Frontier… Is lost for us. Our homes, our comrades, our war… They are unreachable._ ”

**-O-**

**_GLADIUS_ -CLASS CRUISER, MCS _BERSERK_**

“ _When I took command of the 5 th Fleet, and of the Sentinel Corps, at the foot of the shipyard where we first launched and in front of all of you, I made a promise. That I would see victory to the Militia through, that we would be free of the IMC’s tyranny, and that we would gain control of our lives. That we would not have to fear the shadow of those who sought to exploit all of us for their own gain, and who would sacrifice us for the sake of ‘a better world’ that was meant only to them… And that we would return home in victory… But I failed. The moment we arrived on this unknown galaxy… I failed that promise_”

**-O-**

**_TRIDENT_ -CLASS RAIL-CANNON CRUISER, MCS _AGRIGAN_**

“ _And because of my decisions… Because of my shortcomings… Your homes are beyond your reach…_ ”

And though they had heard those words before… Even if not worded as that, even if not spoken so personally, every crewmember felt it return. That feeling of dread, of hopelessness, of… Defeat.

Many felt their shoulders sag. Some let their heads drop, others curling up on the ground.

“ _… But…_ ”

**-O-**

**_LIBERTY-_ CLASS CARRIER, MCS ORPHEUS**

“ _I refuse to allow it to end here._ ”

And once more, their heads rose, facing the direction of the voice.

“ _Our homes may be gone… But we carry it with us,_ ” the voice spoke again, this time once more filled with determination. With steel and pride. “ _We are the Frontier. We are its people, its way of life. If our Frontier is gone… Then we shall make this our new Frontier. In this new galaxy, in this new world… We will forge onward, as the Militia always have! And I will keep fulfill that same promise that I’ve made, ten years ago! We will be free, now and forever more! We are the Sentinel Corps! So will you join me, braving the unknown!?”_

And across the fleet, aboard every ship… They cheered. They shouted, hollered, some banged tools or clapped. Some of the warships even fire their weapons into the emptiness of space. As one, their spirits were lifted.

It was not a complete upheaval. They would still carry bitterness. But for now… For now, they would take this victory. Twisted as it was… It was a victory.

**-O-**

With communications shut off, Elyse sank onto her seat once more, rubbing her temples and letting out a long sigh.

To her surprise, she soon heard another sound. One coming from the room she was in.

Clapping.

And indeed, as she raised her head, Elyse saw all the captains smiling and standing, their eyes focused solely on Elyse.

“Priyatno videt', chto u vas yest' navyki v teatral'nom iskusstve, _komandir_ ” spoke Raikov in mirth.

“Well, I learned a thing or two while out there, captain,” she replied with a chuckle of her own. “So, inspiring speech aside… We need plans. Shatterglass, what data do you have for me?”

“Current deep space scans have revealed a small system at short jump distance from us,” spoke the AI, moving the hologram until it focused on three planets. Short information texts appeared next to each one, and with a short _beep_ , the hologram zoomed into the moon of the largest planet. “This satellite seems to possess adequate living conditions for human colonization. However, actual living conditions cannot be confirmed until a physical landing is performed.”

“Then we must send a ship to that moon and verify its viability,” growled Taurus, of the _Chimera_. “Our vessels are in no condition to perform any jumps, however. Repairs are still underway, which limits us to dropships—”

“Or my ship.”

The gathered captains turned in shock towards the commander, seeing a confident smile on her face.

“The _Hippolyta’_ s not damaged, we have a cloak unit aboard it, and it doesn’t need additional crew to operate. And the jump-drive’s fast and powerful enough to get us to that moon and away from any danger better than our warships,” continued Elyse, turning her eyes toward the hologram of the _Draconis-_ class hovering beside the _Avalanche_. “Plus, we got plenty of Pilots and Titans aboard it. It’s the perfect scouting party.”

“And the fact you’d be putting yourself in danger?” asked Alberte, his arms crossed and tone dead-serious.

“I’ve been doings this since our first deployment, this changes nothing.”

“The stakes have changed, commander,” spoke up Deanna, her cigarette halfway burned and hanging from her lips. “Before, we had assistance from the Militia. Now—”

“Now we are by ourselves, I know.” Elyse took her helmet and stared at it, peering into the shut-off quad lenses, before sliding it onto her head, hearing the familiar hiss before it became online. And when the four lenses came alight, she focused her gaze on the hologram. “But they’ve risked enough for me. Now… It’s my turn to return the favor.”

­ **-O-**

**UNKNOWN SYSTEM – _DRACONIS_ -CLASS TITAN DROPSHIP, MCS _HIPPOLYTA_ ’S BRIDGE**

“Are you serious? ‘Now it’s my turn to return the favor’? _Wow_ , boss.”

“Shut the hell up, Jacob, I had to be inspirational back there. Otherwise they wouldn’t let me leave.”

“I agree with him, Elyse. You could have been less melodramatic.”

“ADAM, you too. Shut up.”

“Heh… Glad to see you back on your feet, commander.”

One hour later, Elyse had gathered the _Hippolyta_ ’s crew and some extra supplies from the _Avalanche_ that had been shipped to them. With ammunition restocked, Titans repaired and left with plenty of spare parts and the ship confirmed to be in tip-top shape, all that had been left to do was ask her team.

She got three words in before they said “Yup sure, let’s go,” no questions asked.

And so here they were: Elyse, Jacob, Natalia, ADAM, Harper, Wolfe and Gardner, ready to become the Militia’s first extra-galactic recon squad.

The Paladin Unit always did get strange missions.

“Alright, final check before we do this. Systems?”

“All of them running green, Elyse,” replied Wolfe as he tapped away at his station with a smile. “Nothing to worry about, we’re not exploding mid-jump.”

“Jump drive is fully operational, we are set for FTL travel,” spoke ADAM from the pilot seat as he typed away on the control console at incredible speeds. “I recommend we jump at a point distant from the satellite, however, as a precaution.”

“Better than to piss off aliens, huh,” chuckled the commander as she sat down on the captain’s chair and stared out into the black expanse ahead of them. Somewhere out in the expanse, a new home awaited for them. Where and what it would be… Who knew? With how things were going, anything was possible.

But wasn’t that part of the fun?

An alert sound from one of the consoles drew Natalia’s attention, who quickly went over to check it, only to let out a chuckle. “Ma’am, we’re being hailed by the fleet. Text-only message.”

Curious, Elyse leaned forward on her chair, staring at their heavy gunner. “And what’s it say?”

And with a smile beneath her helmet, Natalia turned back to Elyse and stepped away from the console, revealing only two words written in large, bold letters.

**GOOD LUCK**

“… Heh… Well, let’s not keep them waiting. ADAM? Take us out.”

“Yes, commander.”

And so the _Hippolyta_ sped away from the fleet, its many massive engines spewing blue flames as the _Draconis_ -class dropship took to the black void. And moments later, in a blue flash of space-time distortions…

It vanished.

**-O-**

**OUTER RIM – OUTER EDGE OF RUGOSA SYSTEM, IN APPROACH OF THE RUGOSA MOON**

And in a second blue flash, the _Hippolyta_ rematerialized into real space, lightning still coursing through its hull. A moment later, its hull shimmered like a distorted mirror, and the ship disappeared from the void as it moved towards the green moon orbiting an ash-grey planet.

“Well, there it is. Doesn’t seem like much,” said Wolfe as he put images of the moon unto the screens. “Got some scans of it coming in-- … Well… Fuck.”

“What _now_ , Wolfe?” asked Elyse.

“We can scratch this place for colonizing. Atmosphere’s fine, but no water or detectable plant life, just a bunch of dead coral and rock formations. I doubt there’s any possibility of us setting up a colony down there…”

“Are you _shitting_ me?” asked Harper incredulously, throwing his arms up in defeat. “All that big talk and speeches, and we found a barren rock? _Seriously_?!”

Elyse quickly stepped up, however, moving to stand beside Wolfe. “Alright calm down, let’s not screw this up so early. ADAM, can you confirm?”

“The data is confirmed to be truthful, commander,” replied the simulacrum. “Underground scans and telemetry data would require an in-atmosphere analysis and application of probes.”

Just perfect… So their first hope was already a bust.

… Ah, what the hell. In for a credit, in for four hundred.

With a sigh, Elyse turned to Natalia. “Alright… Natalia, send a message back to the fleet. Tell them the moon’s a bust, and that we’re going to look at some other planets.”

Natalia nodded in response and took to the task, bringing up the communication screen and opening a line to the 5th Fleet.

…

“… Uhh, boss? We got a problem. Big one.”

“Nat, if it’s not a black hole flying straight at us—”

“It’s not. But our comms are being jammed.”

…

Okay, actually a big problem.

“Natural or artificial jamming?”

“Definitely artificial. _Something_ ’s blocking signals indiscriminately from entering or leaving the area. It’s not targeted, so at least it’s not because they found us.” Natalia switched her station onto the main screen, with their position marked on one side of the screen, with the moon close to the middle… And another object, moving towards the celestial body. “And it’s affecting those guys too.”

… Well… First contact with aliens it’d be.

“Gardner, give me intel.”

“Small ship, just a bit over one hundred meters long,” began listing the Pilot as the image magnified and revealed a the unknown ship to them: a long angular ship painted red and white, with three cylindrical engines and a few cannon turrets lining the side or top of the ship. “They’re shooting hails at the moon, but they’re being jammed too.”

“I can peep if you want me to,” piped up Natalia, with no small amount of eagerness.

“Probability of we being able to understand an alien language is infinitesimally low.”

“Noted, ADAM,” replied Elyse, snapping her fingers towards the female Pilot. “Do it.”

With a pep to her actions, Natalia began cracking onto the communication lines emanating from the shuttle-like ship. To her surprise, there was very little security encrypting it. Little enough that, in less than two minutes, she had access.

“… _repeat, Toydarian Royal Delegation, this is the Republic Envoy. Please respond.”_

You could have heard a pin drop inside the bridge following the silence that befell the gathered Pilots. Finally, it was Jacob that broke the silence.

“… That was English. I’m not tripping, am I?”

“Audio log confirms it is English language,” spoke up ADAM in his usual monotone, his mono-eye head turning to Jacob. “You have not suffered intoxication.” Gardner made to give a snarky reply, maybe lighten the mood, but that was quickly cut short when an alarm went off on his console.

“Two jump signals detected! Dropping on top of the unknown ship!” he cried out, putting the entire team on alert. And indeed, seconds after his warning was heard, two ships seemed to materialize ahead and behind of the shuttle. These ones were far larger, painted gun-metal grey and blue, and had a bulbous head and tail design, with two angular wings protruding from the middle.

And not a moment later, they began raining down bright red beams onto the shuttle, shaking and rocking the smaller ship with each successful blast.

“That’s a lot of firepower against a target that small…” muttered Elyse, cupping her chin in thought. The other Pilots turned to stare at their commanding officer, their anxiousness at the situation growing by the second.

Finally, it was Wolfe that broke the silence. “You want me to get close? Cloak’s still good for quite a few hours, and we’re fast enough.” To his surprise, however, Elyse shook her head, still focused on the main viewscreen.

“We don’t know squat of what’s happening here. I don’t want to end up shooting at the wrong ship and becoming a criminal or something.”

“Preeeetty sure the big ships are bad guys,” said Harper, even as his well-trained eyes followed the still evading shuttle. Unfortunately for the white ship, its dodging and weaving worked only so much, and soon more and more red bolts begun striking the vessel. “I mean, good guys don’t bomb a shuttle with two cruisers.”

Yet again any reply was killed when suddenly, the shuttle began launching small pods towards the moon’s surface, four in total, before jumping out of the system. And to their shock, the two larger vessels shifted their fire from the escaped shuttle to the descending pods, quickly destroying two of them and catching a third just as it began entering the moon’s orbit. The final pod, however, miraculously managed to remain unscathed, and quickly began descending towards the green satellite.

“… I have their landing trajectory,” spoke up Harper, a projected line appearing over the pod and ahead of it. “Your orders, boss?”

A second later, Elyse was at the door, helmet already on her head. “Everybody to the hangar. We’re getting some answers right the fuck now.”

**-O-**

**RUGOSA MOON – IN-ATMOSPHERE, EN ROUTE TO EXPECTED ESCAPE POD’S CRASH SITE**

Five minutes later, their black-and-yellow Crow dropship was streaking through the air after a successful jump into atmosphere. Luckily, it seemed the two warships had not detected the approach of the cloaked _Hippolyta_ or their FTL jump onto the moon, either from distraction or because they couldn’t pick up jump drives. The _Draconis_ -class dropship had relocated itself to the other side of the moon, ready to move towards them at any sign of danger. Aboard the Crow, the Paladin Unit ran final checks on their equipment and weapons. All of them wore the Mk. 3 Pilot Booster Rig, the latest iteration of the equipment issued to combat-certified Pilots.

Whereas before they were limited to once tactical ability, these had miniaturized some of the tech and made them carry a standard set: A Grapple unit, a rack of Pulse Blades with recharge capability, and the standard booster units. The rest of their gear was tailored to their specific loadouts:

Elyse wore the Phase Shift rig, and held in her hands a Havoc energy rifle, with a Mozambique holstered on her hip. Jacob, a T.E.C. kit with a G2A5 battle rifle and RE-45 auto pistol.

Natalia made the final adjustments to her A-Wall deployer, her Alternator SMG and Devotion LMG already prepped and ready. Beside her, the Cloak-equipped ADAM and Gardner held a Triple Take and Sentinel sniper rifles respectively at the ready, with a Mk. 6 Smart Pistol on ADAM’s chest holster and a B3 Wingman Elite on Harper’s hip.

Finally, there was Harper, with his Active Radar Pulse unit, Mastiff shotgun and P2016 semi-auto pistol, and Wolfe, who wore a Holo-Pilot rig and hefted a “Sidewinder” Micro Rocket Launcher and a Volt energy SMG on the back of his waist.

To complete the ensemble, folded into small, compact forms were four Spectre units, armed with R-301 carbines.

For the sake of stealth, they were not carrying dedicated Anti-Titan weaponry, nor were they planning on dropping Titans, but the _Hippolyta_ was ready to jump in and deploy them with one radio signal. Nevertheless, a seven-team Pilot unit this heavily armed would be more than enough to take on most challenges that the IMC could throw at them. Hopefully, it would be enough for whatever freaky stuff they encountered here.

Wolfe piloted the Crow just short of the massive coral trees that dotted the landscape, the mineral forest stretching as far as the eye could see, while the digital marker projected in his HUD ticked down in distance. “Almost there, commander. Gonna land the dropship away from the crash site just to be safe.”

“Do your thing, Wolfe,” replied Elyse as she locked the Havoc’s power cell in place before turning to the rest of the team. “Alright everybody, listen up. We don’t know what to expect at that crash site, so keep those fingers off the trigger. Fire if we get shot at, hope they don’t have vaporizing guns or some freaky stuff like that so we can start shooting back.”

“Yes ma’am!”

With an approving nod, she turned back towards the cockpit, just in time to see Wolfe arch the dropship up then dive into a small clearing amidst the coral. Had it been any other pilot, she would have had doubts of them managing the feat.

For Wolfe, it was as simple as sliding the Crow onto the clearing and reversing once they were centimeters from hitting the massive coral tree and rock formation right in front, and easing the dropship onto the ground as if it was a feather.

With a hiss, the Crow’s bay door opened and lowered gently onto the ground, allowing the seven Pilots to file out quickly and orderly from the ship. Each one swept the area with their respective weapons, and once it was confirmed that the area was indeed clear, the Paladins relaxed, if only slightly. Jacob pressed a few buttons on the control unit on his wrist, and with a confirmation sound, the Spectres unfolded themselves and drew their weapons, quickly forming a perimeter around their landed Crow.

Dropship landed and hidden, security forces deployed, no signs of any hostiles.

Good. The mission could procede.

“Crash site’s one klick to the west, commander. We’re clear to go,” said the T.E.C. Pilot as he peered through the scope of his battle rifle.

“Good. Paladins, move out,” muttered Elyse as low as she could into the comm link, and as one they began filing into the rock forest and away from the Crow. ADAM and Gardner quickly used their grappling hooks and hoisted themselves up into the coral above them, stealthily hoisting themselves onto the dead aquatic flora and vaulting from coral to coral, always shadowing the other five Pilots below them.

Like ghosts, the seven moved towards their intended goal, mindful of possible ambush points or for possible pursuers that might have detected their movements from out of sight. Suddenly, not long after they had moved out, a deafening hum began echoing all around, forcing the Pilots to stop and scan their surroundings once more. “Commander, aerial vehicle on approach vector. Unlikely to have discovered us, headed east-northeast,” called out ADAM from above, his head turned away from the squad and towards the skies. And indeed, moments after the simulacrum called it out, a large H-shaped ship flew over the group, its engines rattling the corals around them and even toppling a few loose formations before disappearing from view into a clearer part of the surface to land on.

Elyse watched the passing aircraft with some dread, wondering what exactly could be inside of it, before signaling the rest of the squad to keep on moving, this time with added urgency to their step.

“Approaching the crash site, ma’am,” called out Wolfe from beside her, Volt leveled to the horizon line and wrist computer propped against the SMG in his line-of-sight. With a nod, the commander signaled the squad to rush forward, the five Pilots on the ground breaking into a coordinated sprint while the two above used their grappling hooks to boost themselves forward silently. Once they sprinted up a small hill just ahead of them, the coral tree line ended abruptly, giving way instead to a massive clearing, with a few ground-level mineral plants doting the open area. And indeed, right in the middle of the clearing and at the end of a long trail of displaced earth lay a large cylindrical pod, its hatch open and smoke wafting from the damaged hull.

And surrounding the pod were four figures. Highly likely its passengers.

The squad quickly threw themselves prone, with Elyse, Jacob and Harper withdrawing a pair of binoculars from their suits to watch their target, while above ADAM and Gardner laid at the edge of the last coral trees to peer at them through the scope of their snipers.

Three of the contacts were humanoid in shape, roughly the same height and build and clad in a full body white armor, covered in red highlights and patches with full helmets concealing their faces. One was armed with a long rifle and had two pistols holstered, another carried what seemed to be a carbine, and the third one hefted a dangerous looking minigun. The fourth figure, however…

“… Holy shit that a green midget?” muttered Jacob, earning himself a quick whack on the helmet from Natalia. And yet, crude as it was, the description indeed fit the appearance of the little alien standing amidst the three soldiers.

The figure was diminutive, around the size of a small child, but the many wrinkles on its forehead and the grey hair at the back of its head hinted at an advanced age. It was draped in a white robe atop an orange shirt and brown pants, grasping a small walking stick in one of its three-finger, claw-like hand.

“Well, at least we can confirm one alien,” said Natalia, lowering her binoculars to stare at Elyse.

“Mhm. Looks like they’re part of some armed force too. An army of some kind maybe, or a PMC.”

“Think they got some secret mission here?” asked Harper aloud, his Mastiff laying across from him as he continued to peer through his binoculars.

“They definitely wanted to land on the moon,” replied Gardner. “And weren’t afraid of being left here. I say we observe and follow, try to find out anything possible about them.”

“Agreed,” said Elyse, lowering her own binoculars just as the small alien and the soldiers began moving into the coral forests in the direction opposite of where the Paladin Unit was hidden. “Tail them. Keep your distance, and keep yourselves hidden.”

And as soon as the four figures disappeared into the coral tree line, the seven Pilots took off after them, grasping their weapons tightly for some manner of comfort.

Though Elyse could not shake this unnerving feeling that somehow, they had already been found…

**-O-**

Just a few minutes later, Elyse and her squad found themselves crouched behind some large boulders or still above in the trees, watching the three soldiers kneel beside the green alien just short of a natural trench, with the troopers holding their weapons at the ready and pointed at something far in the tree line. “ADAM, Gardner, anything from up there?” whispered the commander at their two snipers.

“Definitely. Something’s approaching from the same direction they’re facing… A _lot_ of somethings,” replied the human sniper, his Sentinel already braced and at the ready. Beside him, ADAM kept his Triple Take readied and propped on a small bipod, the simulacrum’s sensors synchronized with his Oracle TD Gunsight.

“Confirmed. Contacts approaching, several possible infantry types, three heavy armor vehicles.”

Not a second later, the space ahead of the crash survivors was made alight by heavy artillery, large red bolts of energy crashing against the ground and several of the coral trees blocking the way. The ground shook with the heavy fire directed at the four, a cloud of dust rising to block the sight of the encroaching force, but still the white soldiers and small alien remained where they were, unworried of the bombardment directed at them.

“Damn, that’s a lot of firepower aimed at just four targets,” shouted Wolfe, his voice almost fully drowned by the cacophony of blasts echoing all around. “Either those guys really hate these four, or they’re that dangerous!”

“Sure hope it’s the former, honestly,” yelled back Natalia as she readied her Devotion LMG. “Cause then we might have a chance to talk!”

“Well then let’s make sure they’re alive for it! Gardner, ADAM! Shut those things up!”

“On it, commander!”/”Affirmative.”

As one, the human and simulacrum aimed their snipers through the thick smoke cloud and holes now on the coral trees, their scopes easily marking the skeletal robots riding on the open canopy of the three hover tanks encroaching on their position.

In one second, they had marked their targets.

Two seconds, their shots had been calculated by the on-board computers of their suits.

On the third, they let fly their shots.

The lightning-like crackle of the Triple Take and Sentinel energy-directed sniper rifles were drowned out by the roar of the laser cannons fired by the tanks. It only made easier to conceal the snipers’ attack.

And so, without warning, the three droids had their heads shot off in quick succession, their inert bodies falling into the inside of the tanks just as the cannon fire stopped, the robot infantry surrounding the armored support staring in confusion around themselves in search for the new attackers. The white soldiers, meanwhile, stared baffled at the sight of the armored convoy halting their assault, and began scanning their surroundings as well. To her satisfaction, Elyse saw that neither group had looked in their direction, and was about to order her squad to relocate to another point.

That is, until her eyes met with the little alien’s, the green creature staring directly at her with an amused smile. And indeed, the little one quickly grasped the attention of his soldiers and motioned for them to pull back, the four figures quickly breaking into a controlled sprint. The alien then turned back towards Elyse, still with an amused smirk, and motioned towards the direction the four had taken off towards.

Jacob was the first to react.

“… So commander… What do we do?”

The expected question. The answer?

“What else, Jacob? We follow”

“God fucking dammit…”

**~O~**

**Technically speaking, these author notes will make it 7k words, but I’ll count because I’m a cheater c:**

**But aye, here we go, second chapter done! I’m gonna regret posting this so late, it’s 3am and I probably won’t sleep well/enough at all… But it is done. Chapter 2 is finished!**

**Once again, I’d like to give a massive thank you to everyone who followed and commented on this back on SpaceBattles, and for putting up with the wait for it!**

**For what I’ll work on next… I’m feeling pretty cheery actually. Know what that means?**

**A “Charge the Heavens” chapter! But for real, I really do feel like writing another chapter for that story. Call it a mood.**

**For now, LandMaster out.**


	3. Chapter 3

Of the many ways the Paladin Unit expected this mission to go, they could chalk up “trailing behind a little green alien and his soldier escort while avoiding been shot by discount MARVINs” as one of the _least_ likely ones. Knowing her team, _someone_ would have bet on it, however.

Probably Harper. Prick.

Still, this was the reality of their situation. Seven pilots, harpooning themselves into the coral trees and swinging wildly over the heads of their four new acquaintances. More than once, the white-clad soldiers had gazed up at the Pilots, though whatever was their expression behind the T-shaped visors had remained unknown. The alien, however, seemed quite amused with the whole situation, considering the smile on his face. Nevermind the fact he seemed to trust them _very_ quickly. Could it be a trap of some kind?

The rain of red bolts behind them served as a quick encouragement to keep swinging forward and don’t look back.

… Well, except for shooting back. Which they did. Constantly.

“Seriously, how many of them ARE there?!” shouted Natalie in exasperation as she spun around and fired with the Devotion at the far-off horde of beige robots still somehow tailing them. Said robots were far enough that their accuracy was pathetic, but the sheer volume of bolts still made for a worrying spectacle. Their two reprieves were that the tanks had yet to continue the pursuit, deprived of drivers and still unable to cross the large corals in their path, and that their weapons worked just as well against these robots as they did against Spectres and other machines, maybe even better. The LMG rounds punched through their alloy bodies with impunity, launching skeletal limbs and twisted metal across the ground. Down below, the troopers would stop and fire off a few shots of bright blue lasers from their rifles and gatling gun, before turning around and resuming their run.

“Enough that they’re _pissing me off_!” snarled Elyse, firing off another lance of energy from her Havoc Rifle at three lined up robots, who promptly melted on impact. “Anyone got any ideas?”

“You’re not gonna like it a lot, commander!”

“Wolfe I officially don’t give a shit, _do it_!”

With that incentive given, Wolfe fired up his Pilot Rig, boosting off to the side and ahead of the entire group approached a natural corridor formed by the coral. Launching both grapple hooks into one of the walls, the Pilot reeled himself onto them, hitting the coral wall and cracking it beneath his feet. Sparing only a moment, Wolfe holstered his Sidewinder and pulled from his chest piece several packs of C4 that he quickly and accurately began throwing towards the base of the nearby trees, where they stuck firmly with their impact-deployed adhesive. “Everybody get on the ground, things are about to get hectic!” he yelled back at them as he released the grapples and dropped down to the ground.

“Wolfe for fuck’s sake—”

“Can it and do it, Gardner!”

Suddenly, a new group of robots came into view. And rather than being the lanky, beige robots that had been so numerous, these were a larger, bulkier model, painted in grey and with repeater weapons on their wrists that began raining even more laser fire than the groups before. Behind them, a few ball-like droids came rolling in, eliciting a warning cry of “droidekas!” from the white-clad soldiers. Said balls unfolded strange robots balancing in three legs, which quickly thickened the air even more with red bolts. One such bolt struck a trooper in the leg, sending the soldier to the ground with a cry of pain. His companions ran to stand between the injured trooper and the wave of metal, firing wildly with their own weapons at any enemy they could feasibly target.

Yet it was the green alien that surprised them most. The little one withdrew a small silver cylinder from inside his robe, and with a press of a button, a bright green blade lit from it. And with an agility to rival most Pilots, the alien jumped into the fray, spinning and waving his blade in practiced, masterful moves, each one sending the enemy laser shots either into the coral trees, or back at the robots.

The Paladin Unit quickly joined the fray, landing around the group to add their own firepower against the metal army. “Natalia, get us some cover!” yelled Jacob as he fired his G2A5 with deadly precision at the grey robots, striking them in their joints or weapons.

She, in response, made a boost-slide to the front of the gathered troops, flinging two metal disks between the living and the robots. And from the disks, two large orange walls sprung up, shielding the Pilots and their allies from the unrelenting fire coming from the robots. As bright plumes covered the near-indestructible A-Walls, the Pilots doubled down on their offensive, tearing through the gathered robots slowly but surely. Yet the enemy numbers kept being replenished, and their weapon fire could not break through the shields of the “droidekas” that now lined the corridor side-to-side.

“Harper, help that guy up! We’re pulling back!” shouted Elyse over the roaring of gunfire as she paced back, Havoc Rifle glowing brightly from the sheer volume of bolts it shot. “ _Wolfe_!”

And as the entire group broke into a full retreat, Harper with the injured soldier thrown over his back, Wolfe withdrew the detonator from one of his pouches, and without a moment’s hesitation, pressed the trigger.

A low, discreet beep echoed, and the C4 exploded in a super-heated ball of fire, scattering and breaking apart any droid unfortunate enough to be standing close to it. A moment later, the trees they had been attached to came crashing down, burying beneath them both the escape route of the living, and the droids that remained.

With a satisfied smile hidden beneath her helmet, Elyse stared at the collapsing trees before returning her attention to the path ahead, and was greeted with the… _interesting_ sight of the small green alien piggybacking on one of his troopers, and looking at her with that same amused look he had been this entire time. And after a long pause, Elyse finally spoke to it. Her first words to the first intelligent alien she ever encountered.

“I guess this makes us friends for now?”

And with a chuckle, the alien nodded.

“Very much agree, I do.”

**-O-**

Not far from where the chase was taking place, two groups stood atop one of the tallest stone formations in the area. One composed of King Katuunko of Toydaria and his two royal guards. The other, of two B1 series battle droids, and a pale, lean woman clad in tight robes and with two curved cylinders hanging from the front of her waist.

Said woman’s name was Asajj Ventress. Sith apprentice and assassin employed by the Confederacy of Independent Systems.

Ventress turned to her Imagecaster communicator floating over the ground as soon as a transmission was detected, and indeed she was greeted with the image of a battle droid.

But not the one she was expecting.

“Where is 224?” she asked in annoyance at the standard model B1 that had appeared on the hologram.

“ _224 was destroyed, supreme leader_ ,” replied the droid with its expected monotone, and uncaring of the Sith’s shock. “ _The other command units as well. Command has fallen to me._ ”

“Destroyed? By whom, the Jedi?” asked Ventress in a low, venomous tone.

“ _Negative. We were bombarding the Jedi’s position, when suddenly 224 and the other AAT units were taken out, possibly by sniper fire. We were unable to identify any other hostiles in the area._ ”

“Then _where_ are the Republic forces _now_?”

“ _Retreating. Our forces are chasing them down, it should not take long until they are found._ ”

“Do _not_ fail me then,” she growled murderously at the droid, and with that the transmission ended. An amused chuckle from behind her back made the assassin whirl around in anger, glaring at the smiling Toydarian.

“It would seem fate has decided to even the odds, wouldn’t you agree?” asked Katuunko in mirth. And though Ventress very much wished she could wipe the grin off his face, her… _orders_ took precedence. Instead, all she could do was scowl and glare as the king took his own communicator and activated it, this time revealing the image of a clone trooper carefully watching his surroundings, and the unmistakable figure of Grand Master Yoda on the soldier’s back. “Master Yoda. I hear you are having trouble with the droid army.”

“ _Trouble? I know nothing of this trouble_ ,” replied the Jedi in an almost casual tone, his eyes focused solely on the king. “ _Look forward to our meeting soon I do, King Katuunko._ ”

“ _Assuming we don’t get any other surprise visits_ ,” spoke up a new voice, this one female, and with an electronic tone to it. Before Katuunko could speak any more, the communicator flew from his grasp, landing instead on Ventress’ palm, who turned her scowl to the hologram.

“Who is this,” almost spat the assassin, her anger barely restrained. “And what is your purpose here?” And to her growing frustration, the first reply the Sith received was a long, deliberate chuckle. The next was the image of Yoda and the clone trooper being replaced by that of a heavily armed soldier, her appearance close to what a spacer or bounty hunter would look like, a metal helmet with four diagonal lenses glaring back at the Separatist commander.

“ _Wouldn’t you like to know that_ ,” replied the woman, before quickly cutting off the commlink. And in a slip of anger, Ventress crushed the communicator in her hand.

Yes, she was _very much_ interested in whoever they were… So they could pay for their insolence.

**-O-**

“She sounded _pissed_.”

“Mhm. Keeping your enemy unfocused, a sound strategy it is. Well-versed in it, you seem.”

“Years of practice, I can guarantee.”

One mad dash to escape their pursuers and several hectic minutes later, the erstwhile allies were finally given a moment of peace that let them kill the pace to a regular walk, especially Harper who was carrying another human being in his back. On the horizon, the sun had begun to set, covering the surroundings in a wave of varied shades of oranges. Ahead of the group, a deep trench cut through the land, with several natural stone platforms lined with holes on each side. Yoda led the group, walking at a sedated pace as he led the ten humans down onto the platforms and towards one of the holes.

“Are you sure we should go in there, general?” asked one of the troopers, waving his carbine at the hole. “There’s no way out.”

“Rest, we all require,” replied the diminutive alien, his gaze lingering on the injured trooper on Harper’s back. “Know of our position, our enemies do not. To our advantage, this situation we must use.” The Jedi then turned towards the members of the Paladin Unit, giving each pilot a quick, analytical look, before finally turning to Elyse. “And of course, much to be shared between new friends, there is.”

And so, they all filed into the cave, following the natural corridor until it ended up a large, circular room, with some large rocks lining the walls. One by one, the group sat in a circle around the cave, with one of the white-clad troopers pulling from his backpack a large cylindrical object, that with a flick of a switch lit the cave up with a soft, orange-tinted light.

As gently as he could, Harper lowered the injured trooper to the ground, careful not to put any weight on his injured leg. With a grunt, the man allowed himself to fall to the ground, leaning his back against the wall. The Pilot, meanwhile, swung his backpack around his body and onto the ground as two small metal arms unfolded from his back, rummaging through it until finally he pulled a medical field kit from inside. “Alright, let’s have a look at that leg finally.”

“I’m fine,” muttered the trooper, running a hand down his thigh. “Just a graze wound.”

_Whack_

And to his and his fellow troopers’ surprise, Harper smacked the man’s helmet, the Pilot’s head still turned to his medical kit. “If I believed that every time I found someone injured, I wouldn’t be a field doctor anymore,” grumbled the man, finally withdrawing a canister of healing nanomachines, an auto-sealing suture and a small medical scanner from the kit. “Now get that leg armor off, before I _rip_ _it_ out.”

“I’d listen to him if I were you,” chuckled Gardner as he set his Sentinel rifle on the floor. “The last time I tried pretending I was fine, Harper tranquilized me and only woke me up when the mission ended.”

The trooper stared at the Pilot for a long moment, before slowly moving to remove his thigh armor. The burnt white piece unclasped from the limb with a small hiss and a wince of pain from the soldier, but thankfully it had not fused onto the flesh with the heat. With the armor out, Harper quickly took to work on the injury, the mechanical arms of his suit handling the instruments and more delicate motor work. “So, what’s the current plan?”

“Can’t do a whole lot against those clankers,” spoke the trooper hefting the minigun as he dug through his backpack. “Got one more power cell for each of our guns, two grenades, and one rocket for the launcher.”

“We’re still good on ammo for our infantry-level guns, commander, plus our grenades,” said Wolfe as he made count of his colleagues’ gear. “But nothing to take down heavy armor like that. Just the Sidewinder, and I only got two more boxes for that… Plus I used up all my C4 on the escape.”

“Against a battalion?” asked another of the troopers in an incredulous tone, before letting out a scoff. “Forget it then, we lost.”

“Don’t throw the towel just yet, buddy,” said Natalia as she tinkered with her Alternator. She unfolded and separated each addition individually, checking each for damage before sliding them back on. “You’d be surprised what a little trickery can do to turn a shitty situation to your favor.”

Master Yoda giggled at the remark, tapping his cane on the ground. “Hmm, indeed. So certain of defeat are you, hmm? All around us is that which we need to prevail,” continued the small alien as he waved the stick in his hands at the many humans surrounding him. “Your helmets, all of you. Remove them. Amongst friends we are, so our faces we will show.”

For a moment, the Paladins turned to another, uncertain of how to proceed… Until finally, Elyse gave a slow but confident nod to her fellow Pilots.

And so, one by one, their helmets were removed.

There was Gardner, his surprisingly youthful face clean of any facial hair, short brown hair that rose to a small point at the forehead, and his bright grey eyes. Beside him, Wolfe shook some of his dreads free, the light of the lamp reflecting off his darkened skin and hazel eyes, while Jacob ran a gloved hand through his short brown hair, his oddly-colored red eyes shining lightly in the reduced light.

Harper was the fastest to remove his, revealing his fair complexion, blue eyes and military buzzcut hair, before quickly refocusing on closing the trooper’s wound. Beside him was Natalia, with her platinum half-shaven hair, azure-colored eyes, and her prosthetic lower jaw.

And finally, Elyse removed her own helmet. And for the first time in their soon-to-be-born long alliance, Yoda saw the young woman beneath the visage of a Pilot: shoulder-length black-and-white hair, somehow still perfectly smooth. A lightly pale complexion, like that of a doll, with several circuitry lines running down the bottom of her silver-colored eyes and through her cheek, and a jagged twin scar running from her forehead down to her chin.

ADAM… Simply looked to his companions, then back to the four acquaintances. “I am a simulacrum. I cannot remove a helmet.”

After a moment of contemplation, Yoda nodded gratefully to the Pilots, then turned to the troopers that accompanied him. The three looked at each other just as the Paladins had before, then calmly removed their own helmets.

And to the surprise of the Militia Pilots, all three had the exact same face. Two had the same military buzzcut, and one had their head completely shaved, but bar that, it was like the same man had been copy-pasted multiple times. “There’s not much to look at here, sir,” spoke the one with the injured leg from where he was sitting, wincing as Harper finished tending to his wound. “We all share the same face.”

“You all triplets or something?” asked Natalia aloud, staring unashamedly at the three. Said troopers looked at the woman with a mix of surprise and confusion, while by the side Yoda let out another cheerful chuckle.

“Well, we _are_ brothers… Or at least, consider ourselves such,” replied the one with the minigun, motioning to the other two beside him. “Being clones means it’s the closest we get to family.”

 _That_ comment drew a surprised reaction, this time from the Pilots, who eyed the troopers with shocked expressions, not the least of which was Harper, whose eyes were almost bugging out as he stared at the soldier. “… Run that by me again. Clones? As in, you’re all _artificially bred_?”

“We’re the Republic’s _Clone_ Army, it’s in the name after all,” replied the last trooper, exchanging a look with his “brothers” around him. Yet when he turned back to the humans, their look of confusion remained. “… What?”

It was Gardner that replied first… Or, well, he coughed into his hand and gave the clone trooper a… _strange_ look. “Yeah uhh, see… Here’s the thing, we’re… Not from around here.”

“So what, you’re saying you’ve never heard of the Grand Army?” asked the injured trooper before letting out a chuckle. “Next you’ll be saying you don’t know what the Republic is.”

The silence that followed that statement only served to shock the clones further… And make Yoda chuckle _louder_. “… You’re serious. Really? The Republic, the Seppies and their droids, _the war_ … None of it means anything to all of you? Nothing?” The clone scoffed, throwing one arm out in frustration. “What, you’re from another galaxy or something?”

“… Funny you’d word it that way.”

Yet before any of the clones could give voice to their exasperation, Yoda tapped his cane again, his feet waving as the old master’s laugh died down, and he opened his eyes to watch the humans around him once more. “Mmm, yes, yes. Curious, this situation is, no?” he spoke, waving at the Pilots. “Troubled, they seem to be by your words. Uncommon with what is common, they are, yet join the fight without hesitation they have. Curious, very curious indeed.” The old Jedi slid off the rock he had been sitting and walked towards the clones, coming to a stop right in the middle of them. “And yet, much to learn you still have, hm? The same face you say have, but deceive you, your eyes can. In the Force, very different each of you are.”

“Rys, always focused on the enemy are you,” spoke Yoda to the first trooper, admittedly the most plain looking of the three, tapping his chest plate with his cane. “For inspiration, look to yourself, and to those beside you.”

“Jek. Concerned about weapons you are,” continued the alien, motioning to the open backpack of the clone wielding the minigun, before closing its flap. “Weapons do not win battles. Your mind, powerful it is. Outthink the droids, you can.” Jek stared at his General for a moment, matching the old Jedi Master’s gaze and seeing the trust and sincerity in the words he spoke, until finally Yoda turned to the last clone, the injured leader of the three soldiers.

“Thire, rush not into battle.” And at that moment, the Pilots saw how the alien seemed to… sag, like his age had finally caught up all at once, before looking up at the trooper with a solemn look in his eyes. “Long is the war… Only by surviving it will you prevail.”

These words spoken, Yoda paced back to the rock he had been seated on and resumed his previous position, resting his cane on his lap. “Clones, you may be, but the Force resides in all lifeforms… Or surrounds them, as it will,” he added, casting a _curious_ look towards Elyse and her companions, before turning his head back to his men, eyes closed pensively. “To calm your mind, delve into it, and to guide you allow it.”

For a moment, there was silence, as the ten humans watched the Jedi with differing levels of awe.

A moment later, said silence was broken by the approaching sound of rumbling, some stone dust falling from the ceiling and onto the gathered group. The clones and Pilots all turned their heads up, before facing the path leading outside, where an ominous hum was echoing from.

“Gardner, ADAM,” spoke Elyse as she and the other pilots (sans ADAM) and the clones redonned their helmets. Without a word, both snipers took their weapons, stood and walked to the entrance, disappearing into thin air with their Cloak kits along the way.

Judging by the way the clones perked up at the sight of that, she took note that maybe this kind of tech wasn’t quite common on this galaxy. A few seconds later, both Pilots reappeared, with Gardner motioning with his head back down the tunnel. “They’re here.”

**-O-**

Ten soldiers and one Jedi peered from their hidden perches above the armored convoy that was slowly making its way through the valley. The three tanks from before, surrounded by both the beige-colored lanky robots and the heavier grey ones, all staring forward and marching in near-perfect unison. Thankfully, the machines seemed uncaring of looking up for their quarry, allowing the chased to scout out their enemy with minimal worry.

“Guess taking out the drivers only bought us time, huh,” muttered Gardner, peering at the now-closed hatch of each tank through his scope. Beside him, Wolfe held his Sidewinder at the ready, though his finger was still far from the trigger. “Any hope of you taking it out?”

“You really gotta ask?” replied the pilot dryly, just as Natalia waved an Arc Star in front of him.

“Don’t worry, we got options,” said the woman in mirth, allowing her partner to take the weapon in his hand. Behind them, ADAM and Elyse gave the clones a few grenades of their own, pointing specifics of the explosives.

“These are Arc Grenades. They glue on impact, have a five-second delay on detonation after you let go of the lever,” said the commander, pointing at each part and the clones nodded in return. “ _These_ are E-Smoke Grenades. These _detonate_ on impact, blanket a good three meters in electrically charged smoke. Don’t miss the throw, _please_.” The clones took the grenades with eagerness, carefully balancing them in their hands before giving a nod to the pilots and joining the others watching the convoy.

Amongst all of them, Yoda watched with a calm, collected air. Finally, the Jedi began walking forward. “Greet them, I shall.”

That declaration drew the attention of the others, who stared at the diminutive alien with varying emotions. “General, we can’t let you fight that whole column by yourself. Let us help,” said Thire, even as he winced from the still-lingering pain on his injured leg. Yet Yoda simply turned to them and smiled, waving at the present soldiers.

“At my side, all of you I have! Outnumbered, they are,” he spoke cheerfully, walking right to the edge of the stone platform before casting a glance over his shoulder. “Know the time to help me, you will.” And with that, the Jedi jumped down to the valley below, skipping from one rock platform to another until he reached the ground… And sat down in front of the convoy, eyes closed and cane resting on his lap. The droids and tanks jolted into a stop, with the frontmost vehicle remaining on the middle while the other two circled around to hover on each side of their lead, and the droid troops spread themselves into a semi-circle around the Jedi.

And as the machines readied their weapons and pointed them at the immobile Jedi sitting in front of them, the Pilots and clones above watched anxiously, clutching their weapons and explosives as they waited for the moment to step in…

**-O-**

At a far-off mountain, Ventress and Katuunko awaited the report of the Sith’s droid army, or the arrival of the Jedi Master.

Each also awaited the arrival of the “unexpected assistance” that Master Yoda had received, though with… _differing_ levels of enthusiasm.

Finally, Ventress’ communicator beeped, with the woman quickly pulling it to her grasp with the Force. And with a click of a button, the hologram of a B1 droid sprung to life once more. “ _Supreme Leader, we have found the Jedi_.”

“Excellent,” answered the Sith with a smile, unminding of the disapproved look that the Toydarian king was directing at her. “Where is he?”

“ _Immobile, currently in front of our forces_.”

And in a second, Ventress’ calm slipped.

“SHOOT HIM! SHOOT HIM _NOW!_ ”

But it was too late.

**-O-**

In that one second, as the droids received their orders…

Yoda _moved_.

In a single, perfect move, the Jedi drew his lightsaber and leapt into the air, right as laser fire turned the space he had been sitting on into a smoking crater, and ignited the brilliant emerald blade. The droids began readjusting their aim, but yet again Yoda was already on the move when they began firing, leaping and spinning through the crowd of droids and cutting them into pieces with masterful strokes of his lightsaber, even deflecting what few bolts were aimed at him that came close to hitting their target. In a blur of speed, Yoda dashed beneath the frontmost tank, away from the aim of any droid. Once beneath, the Jedi stopped right at the middle of the vehicle and thrust his saber up, slicing a perfect circle out of the armor before pulling the armor out with a flick of his wrist.

From above, the clones watched in mild indifference as their general cut down the battalion of droids like a Krayt Dragon through a Bantha herd. The Pilots, on the other hand…

“… So, you… Think he needs any help?” asked Natalia with uncertainty, watching as more destroyed droids were tossed from inside the tank, and several more parts fly off the now open canopy of the vehicle, over the gathered soldiers and off into the horizon. “ _Any_ at all?”

“You tend to get used to it,” spoke up Jek, his gatling gun already set aside as he watched the carnage ensue. “Clankers never stand a chance against a Jedi.”

“No excuse to just sit back and do nothing,” said Elyse, one hand on the side of her helmet as she scanned her surroundings, until finally she turned to Thire. “Which way did you say your rendezvous was?”

Said clone tilted his head in curiosity, but indeed pointed to the desired direction. “Past those ridges, at the highest coral tree, why?”

“I think a certain someone deserves her answers.”

**-O-**

Before, Ventress had been (admittedly) anxious. After the ambush had been successful, and Master Yoda seemingly driven away, the Sith felt satisfied. The plan had worked well.

And then Yoda contacted Katuunko, and this pathetic game turned into an exercise in patience as she awaited the arrival of the captured Jedi and his clones, the only thing standing in the way of an alliance with the Toydarians.

Not to mention those… _Unknowns_ …

And now, to compound her fury, her droid forces would not answer her communications.

She could not fail now. She would _not_ fail now.

Not against a _Jedi_.

The sudden chuckle of the king as he watched the far-off (and _growing_ ) smoke plumes only served to aggravate her tenuous calm. “It’s a lot of smoke for a surrender, don’t you think?” asked the Toydarian with an _infuriatingly_ joking tone. And once more, Ventress raised the almost cracked communicator on her grasp up, ready to call out for a report that seemingly would never come…

Just as the Force _blared_ on her mind in warning, giving the Sith warrior just enough time to ignite her sabers and leap into the air, just as a bolt of energy and a blur of white-and-blue torn apart her droid escorts. Ventress flipped in the air and landed back down with her guard tight and eyes sharp as she searched for her assailant, while Katuunko’s guards moved to surround their liege.

And so Ventress watched as five armored figures landed at the edge of the cliff, their weapons drawn and aimed at her. The still-present sense of danger in the Force drew the assassin’s gaze to the side, with the feeling growing stronger when she laid eyes on a far-off coral tree, along with the presence of one… No, two beings.

“Have to say, that hologram doesn’t do you a lot of justice,” said the lead figure, holding a still-humming rifle she had never seen before. “You really should find a planet with more sunlight and stay there. Would do wonders to you.”

A biting remark rose up her throat, but Ventress forcefully kept it down, instead merely scowling and adjusting her grip on her lightsabers. “And it seems you finally reveal yourself to me. How gracious, to offer your life so easily to me.”

“Sorry, but that’s not happening.” The armored figure then turned towards the king floating to the side, giving him a quick nod. “King Katuunko, I presume?”

“Correct,” replied the Toydarian calmly. “And I assume you to be the group that assisted Master Yoda in his endeavor?”

“Well, let’s just say when we see someone shooting down escape pods, it doesn’t give us a good first impression of them,” said another of the soldiers, this one hefting a long and deadly-looking shotgun. “Especially when they hunt four people with an army.”

At hearing those words, Katuunko and Ventress had differing reactions: the king looked towards the Separatist assassin with anger and contempt, said assassin merely deepened her scowl, her rage at the unknowns somehow becoming even greater.

“So it would seem that there are some present that are unable to present a fair fight, after all,” almost spat the king, his grip on the sword resting at his hip tightening. “What this tells me of the Separatists is… _Most unpleasant_.”

“And who are _you_ to interfere?” growled the Sith, as she began circling between the two parties until she was between both, and discreetly touched the command unit on her wrist against her waist. “Who do you work for? Speak, and my master will merit what mercy you are deserving of.”

She had only need to delay them. The Droideka squads would make quick work of these fools were distracted, and then she would capture these interlopers.

“Work for? Miss, you insult us,” spoke the other woman amidst the new arrivals. “Can’t we just be good Samaritans and help in a daily firefight?”

“Or if you want to hear the truth, we just took the wrong turn and ended up on the neighborhood. There ain’t no law against being lost,” spoke another one, a male this time, with the same obnoxiously flippant tone the others had. “So how about we all lower these guns and stop this little Mexican stand-off we got going?”

“You presume much.”

One second passed. Two.

On the third, Ventress began moving. With the Dark Side flowing through her body and empowering her entire being, she dashed forward, swinging her lightsabers in a pincer move against the two closest soldiers, the woman with the smaller gun and the man with the shotgun.

The assassin was little more than a white blur to the Toydarians and any other common being that would have been watching.

To Ventress’ complete shock, the soldiers showed no sign of surprise at her speed. Instead, backpedaled by activating the boosters on their hips, firing their weapons as they went and forcing the assassin to turn her attack into a defense. She felt the sabers buckle and shake in her grasp as she blocked the oncoming projectiles, the first time it had ever happened, before leaping to the side to avoid a burst of a soldier’s… _Slugthrower?_

Just how primitive _were_ these fools?

Off the corner of her eye, Ventress saw another soldier readying his weapon, and quickly thrust her hand on, sending a powerful Force Push against the man, sweeping him off his feet…

That is, until he fired two hooks into the ground and reeled himself towards her, swinging a curved solid blade at her torso, with Ventress swinging her own sabers in return. Before their weapons could clash, the soldier fired his boosters and flew over the Sith’s head, leaving behind two grenades that slowly arced towards her. And in a flash of blue, lightning coursed through Ventress’ body, locking up her limbs and forcing the assassin to grit her teeth in pain.

It was only due to her brutal training under Dooku that the Sith managed to withstand the electric shock and remain conscious, or at least enough that another warning from the Force made her swing her sabers wildly just in time to deflect a brilliant flash of white that came from the same coral tree she had sensed danger before. Another attack from the same tree, three blue bursts of electricity, was promptly dodged, while another grenade thrown her way was pushed away with the Force. When she caught sight of yet another soldier charging towards her, Ventress took the opportunity and charged at him, both sabers pointed at his heart… Only to simply fly through the hologram, and find herself face-to-face with the barrel of the _real_ soldier’s missile launcher. The Sith was allowed only a split-second to draw back her blades and lift a barrier of Force energy to shield her body before the storm of warheads struck her, and though her body was spared the damage of the explosions, the heat and force still washed over her, pushing Ventress back just as a feeling of imminent danger blared on her mind, but from where—

Her answer came when the leader of the soldiers appeared from thin air and rammed her fist into Ventress’ face, quickly following up with a knee to her gut, and finally a shot at her right shin from a particularly large pistol that burned into her limb and sent an agonizing burst of pain through her.

And as the assassin fell to one knee and her lightsabers deactivated, suddenly there were several gun barrels pointed towards her, the soldiers holding said weapons standing away from her swinging range and with fingers already ghosting the triggers. “So, any other magical tricks you’d like to try?” asked the leader, her hand cannon aimed directly at Ventress’ head. “Careful though, I tend to get twitchy when I get impressed.”

“You… Insolent…”

“Yeah, figured as much.” The soldier then turned towards Katuunko, who was still hovering further away from where their battle had occurred. “Sorry for the mess, your majesty, things got a little out of hand.”

“Well, I won’t say it was not an interesting sight to behold,” replied the Toydarian with a smile, before turning to the Separatist commander. “It’d seem that indeed, my decision to join the Republic was not a flawed one. Now, surrender, and you shall be treated fairly as a prisoner of the Toydarian Monarchy,” he intoned far more dangerously, as his guards raised their weapons yet again towards the injured and scowling assassin.

That is, until a faint sound began echoing, and growing louder by the second.

“ _Commander, hostiles incoming_ ,” called out ADAM through the radio, just as several Droidekas crested to atop the coral tree and unfurled themselves into their walker modes.

“SCATTER!” shouted Elyse, and as one the Paladins did so, boosting away from one another just as blaster fire consumed the space they had previously occupied. When the Droidekas turned towards Katuunko and his guards, Wolfe, Jacob and Harper quickly hooked the ground around the Toydarians and dashed towards the three aliens, tackling them out of the way of the enemy fire, behind the A-Walls that Natalia began throwing to the ground.

And amidst the confusion, Ventress willed every ounce of her strength and every drop of the Force she could grasp before dashing towards her ship, quickly making way into the landed sloop. ADAM and Gardner fired upon the vehicle, but its triple-layer shields held against the infantry-scale easily, and soon the Separatist craft was naught but a shrinking dot in the sky.

“ _Dammit! Sorry, boss, she got away,_ ” called out Gardner, his remark soon followed by the crack of his Sentinel rifle as he fired upon the line of Droidekas still bombarding the hunkered down Pilots and Toydarians. Yet no matter how many shots he fired off, the shields would not drop.

“I care a lot more about us getting out of here alive right now!” shouted back the commander, letting fly several more shots of her HAVOC rifle through the A-Wall alongside the other Pilots and Toydarian guards, yet even with the enhanced firepower granted by the plasma walls, the Droidekas’ shields held true. “Fucking—What does it take to _stop these things_?!”

That’s when the blaster fire stopped, leaving the Pilots to watch agape beneath their helmets as, as calmly as he had been before, Master Yoda and his clone escort walked towards the huddled group, one of the Jedi’s hand raised in the air…

And above, the Droidekas helplessly wiggled their limbs, suspended in mid-air by an unseen force.

“Master Yoda,” called out Katuunko in a relieved tone. “I am very pleased to meet you at last.”

“Share the feeling I do, King Katuunko,” replied the small alien with a smile. And with a flick of his wrist, the Droidekas were sent flying down below and out of a sight, with a few muffled explosions marking their fate. Yoda walked the rest of the way towards the group, his expression and demeanor as cheerful as ever, while the Pilots and Toydarians left the safety of the A-Walls and moved towards the newly arrived group. “Perhaps now, begin negotiations we can.”

“That will not be necessary,” replied the king, drawing his scimitar from its sheath and letting its blade glimmer in the sun. “You have my faith, and my gratitude. Toydaria would be honored to hose a Republic base. My people are in your debt.” Katuunko then turned to the gathered Pilots, gesturing to them with his weapon. “And of course, I hold my personal gratitude to these brave soldiers, who offered their assistance to both of us. To whom do we owe said debt?”

And for the second time in the day, Elyse removed her helmet, feeling the wind blow against her hair and skin.

The wind of a new world… A new beginning.

“Commander Elyse, of the Sentinel Fleet.” She then turned to Yoda, kneeling down to his level as she withdrew a golden coin from one of her pouches. Engraved on said coin were two symbols, one on each side: the insignia of the 5th Fleet… And the insignia of the Militia. “And may I assume… Now friend, and ally?”

And with a warm smile, Yoda took the coin, flipping it calmly on his hand, before pocketing it on his robes and grasping her hand with his own.

“Mhm. Friends, indeed.”

And in the skies above, with an almighty roar, a _Venator_ -class Star Destroyer jumped into orbit, while from the other side of the horizon, a _Draconis_ -class Dropship flew towards the meeting grounds, with a black-and-yellow Crow following close by.

On that day… History was changed.

**-O-**

In deep space, as her _Punworcca_ -class sloop moved to rendezvous with the two _Munificent_ -class frigates, Ventress growled in frustration as her medical droid removed the lodged slugs from her leg, one hand strangling the armrest of her seat to avoid crushing the machine out of anger…

The other holding a communicator, currently with the image of a very dour-looking Count Dooku.

“ _You were defeated._ ”

“Yes… But not to the Jedi. An… Unknown party interfered.”

“ ** _What_** _third party?”_

“… A _troublesome_ one.”

**~O~**

**Happy New Year folks, we’re starting good. :)**

**Apologies for the delay, but here we go. Delivered as promised still within the time-frame of “today” so none of you can lynch me.**

**Not much to say, took a bit more to finish this due to _unforeseen events_ in my house, and some changes to the final act.**

**Next project to be updated is Discarded Blade, stay tuned… Kiddo~**


	4. Chapter 4

**_SOLEMNITY – HIGH JEDI GENERAL YODA’S FLAGSHIP – ORBIT OF RUGOSA_ **

_This ship is way too clean_.

It was the first thing that came to Elyse’s mind when her and the Paladin Unit had been brought aboard Master Yoda’s (and she couldn’t believe those words) _mass-produced cruiser class ship_. The fact that it was half the size of their carrier-class vessel made the woman acutely aware of the kind of industrial and military power this “Republic” could wield.

The second thing was marveling at the size of the ventral hangar, with hundreds of troopers performing duties or milling about awaiting their next assignment. Vehicles of many shapes and sizes awaited combat, while strange little robots slide here and there as they poked, prodded and tinkered at a dozen different tasks.

When the aged alien took them further into the ship, the surroundings had stayed mostly the same: smooth metal surfaces, more troopers and robots, and a few officers in plain coats walking around with bulky data-pads, giving curious or confused stares at the seven pilots accompanied by the small green alien and an escort of soldiers. Soon the soldiers and Pilots bar Elyse were led to the medical wing of the ship for health check-ups, leaving the Jedi and commander to make their way by themselves to the communication room of the warship.

“Mm. Surprised, are you?” asked Yoda cheerfully, the tapping of his cane echoing loudly amidst the hallways. “Unfamiliar with common things, you all are. A most curious thing, indeed.”

“Well, I can tell we have none of… Well, _this_ back home,” replied the Pilot, waving at the metal surrounding them. Just then, a tiny blocky robot passed by, making little whistling tones as it skidded around and away from the two. “… Case in point, of course…”

At that, Yoda could do little but laugh. “Hmm, yes, yes. And many questions this raise, many indeed. But first, a meeting we shall hold, yes? Agreements, we shall come to.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Not a moment later, Elyse and Yoda came upon a set of large doors guarded by four clones, who promptly saluted their general and stepped aside to allow him and the commander entrance. Inside the room were several non-descript computers and machines, with blinking lights and beeping sounds, like something out an old child’s toy, and upon the middle was a circular table with a sunken-in center apparently made of glass, surrounded by a circle of metal. Elyse walked beside the table and watched as Yoda walked up a small ladder beside the table and tapped at a few buttons on a small panel on the metal, bringing to life the hologram of several people sitting on small chairs in a circle, all of them with varied appearances and physical traits: there was one with an elongated cranium, another who looked like a literal insect, a woman with two striped horns on her head with two striped tentacles hanging from the base of said horns, even one with _several_ tentacles instead of hair, and two large pitch-black eyes.

In summation? It was possibly the most exotic gathering of her life. And she once had gone to an IMC brothel-city on a special ops mission.

“ _Master Yoda, I see you have bested the Separatists’ ambush,_ ” spoke the bug-head alien in a low, gravely voice.

“Mm. Cunning they believe themselves to be, but not that cunning they are.”

“ _And with this, we’ve gained yet another powerful ally in this war,_ ” continued the one with the horns-slash-tentacles, before turning and motioning towards the conspicuous Elyse standing beside the small alien. “ _Though it would seem you have encountered another ally in this endeavor._ ”

Taking that as her cue, Elyse removed her helmet and held it under her arm, feeling the cold air of the ship finally touch her face. “I’m Commander Elyse of the Frontier Militia’s Fifth Fleet, team leader of the Paladin Unit. It is an honor to meet you all.” After her introduction, another of the seated Jedi, a bald man with a stony, professional expression nodded towards her.

“ _The Jedi Council thanks you for the assistance in this endeavor… But the question remains, to whom are you aligned with?”_

 _“Indeed,”_ intoned the alien with the elongated head. “ _I have yet to meet a group that call themselves a ‘Militia’. Are you refugees from a planet captured by the Separatists?_ ”

Well, this was it. Game time.

One chance to convince them of the truth, with the fate of her entire fleet hanging on this.

No pressure.

“Yes, Jedi Master, we are refugees… But not of the Separatists.” Elyse took another steadying breath and adjusted her stance before facing the council members once more, her cybernetic eyes meeting holographic ones. “I, and by extension my entire fleet, do not hail from this galaxy. We arrived here through a… Freak accident, act of God, whatever it may be. Me and my team had just been scouting for a possible colony when we came across Master Yoda being attacked.” Elyse put the helmet onto the table and withdrew from one of her vest’s pockets a coin not unlike that which she had gifted Master Yoda with, turning each side for the gathered Jedi to see. “I come to him, and to all of you, to request asylum for my people… Or whatever other path you can offer.”

And for the longest moment, none of them replied. The council members simply stared at her, their eyes (or at least, the ones she could read) scrutinizing every inch of her being, looking for tells or signs that what she had just spoken was a lie. Finally, the bald man turned towards Master Yoda, who had yet to stop smiling. “ _Master Yoda, are you certain of their claims?”_

“Mm… Connected to the Force, permeated and immersed in it, all living beings are. Sense and feel this connection, we can… But on them, nothing can be felt.” And when the small alien elder turned his eyes toward her, Elyse felt that his gaze went beyond that of her physical body… And was aimed instead at her soul. “Surround them indeed, the Force does. But reside in them, it does not. An empty space, they are to my senses. Alive they are, but not to the Force.”

Those words seemed to be enough to the Council, who each nodded at the words of their elder Master before returning their attention to Elyse. “ _If Master Yoda believes your claims, then we have no place in doubting that trust,_ ” spoke the horned woman once more, her tone now carrying a more comforting tone to it. “ _We offer our condolences for the situation you and your people find yourselves in._ ”

“Thank you, Jedi Master,” replied Elyse as she re-pocketed the coin. “If possible, I’d like to request a meeting with a representative from the Republic, to discuss political asylum for us.”

“Hmm… Easily arrangeable a meeting would be. However, uncertain is its success.”

“ _Indeed. While the Jedi Council has some sway in the political landscape, the actual decision would come down to the Supreme Chancellor, and the process would fall to the Galactic Senate_ ,” spoke the bug-headed alien as he caressed his chin. “ _… A physical meeting would certainly earn you favor, if you’d so be inclined._ ”

“A meeting… At your capital city?”

“ _Indeed. Provided you brought a representative of your fleet, and one of your vessels, it would certainly serve as a show of good faith. That you have already provided assistance to a general of the Republic Army and Jedi Grand Master will serve as proof to trust you.”_

“Hmm… Council, if I may leave for a moment? I need to contact the fleet.”

“Very well. Await your answer eagerly, we do.”

“Thank you.” And with one final nod, Elyse walked out of the communication room, giving a respectful nod to the guard troopers as she passed them, before withdrawing a secure radio from her pockets. “ _Hippolyta?_ Elyse here. Get me a line with the Fifth Fleet… Yeah. We got some talks to get ready for.”

**-O-**

**_SOLEMNITY – HIGH JEDI GENERAL YODA’S FLAGSHIP – FOURTEEN DAYS LATER, ENROUTE TO CORUSCANT_ **

_These quarters ain’t half bad…_ thought Elyse as she once more found herself laying atop the bed in one of the passenger quarters given to them by Master Yoda for the travel to the planet Coruscant.

A planet that, apparently, was entirely the capital of the Republic.

As expected, the council of captains had been apprehensive of their first contact having already devolved into a shootout, but if nothing else one possible ally had been met. And when the offer for a diplomatic meeting was mentioned, they agreed that at this point, they had little to lose. The plan was then made: Elyse and the chosen mediator would travel alongside Master Yoda and his ship, while the Fifth Fleet would trail behind using staggered jumps, making sure to avoid detection as well as possible.

Along for the ride with the _Venator_ ship were the _Hippolyta,_ and their chosen “diplomatic vessel”: the _Defender-_ class Assault Carrier _Chronos_ , and its captain, Lance Howe. If there was one man she trusted to negotiate a deal that would favor them, it was “The Deal-Broker” Howe. He had also taken the liberty of procuring a few more things for their travel: a few Titans, robotic infantry, talented engineers and even another full Pilot team, one she knew from quite a few years: Golem Unit.

The catch? They were being towed. According to them clones, their FTL drives were quite different from jump-drives. Rather than compressing two points in space through quantum and time/space manipulation into a microscopic distance, their so-called “hyperdrives” actually accelerated starships through a higher dimensional plane at true faster-than-light speeds by following pre-existing “lanes” in space.

The pros? A more well-mapped galaxy, and with more well-defined paths, so they wouldn’t end up affected by something like the Battle of Demeter.

The cons? Their movements were restricted by those same pre-planned lanes, limiting flexibility, while the travel time could cause quite a few problems.

Nevermind the fact the Fifth was always acutely aware of their positions, thanks to quantum-entangled tracking beacons.

Shatterglass and ARIES had already sent her a few simulated scenarios utilizing comparisons between their jumpdrives and the native hyperdrive for combat utilization, and while she appreciated the zeal, Elyse would rather keep all of this until _after_ they had properly prepared a treaty or agreement between both parties. They didn’t even know about the Fifth Fleet’s size and composition, _especially_ on their trump cards: the _Avalanche_ , and Titans.

And they would stay that way for quite some time, thank you very much.

But for now, with her duties fulfilled and still awaiting the arrival to Coruscant, Elyse just wanted to remain in this surprisingly comfortable bed and sleep the rest of the trip away…

_Knock-knock-knock_

“Commander Elyse?”

… Then again, this _was_ too good to be true.

With a groan, the Pilot threw herself off the bed, slowly making her way to the door to fumble with the control panel until finally the door slid open, revealing a clone trooper captain standing at attention on the other side. “Commander Elyse, Captain Neik,” said the soldier as he saluted.

“At ease, trooper, you’re not in my chain of command…” she almost slurred out of tiredness, rubbing one of her eyes in an honestly futile effort to somehow get the sleep off her face. “Is there a problem?”

“Well… Not a problem per se, commander, but…”

“Yes, captain, what is it?”

“… It’s your unit, ma’am, they are… Educating some of our men in the hangar.”

“… Goddammit…”

­ **-O-**

**_HANGAR BAY – THREE MINUTES LATER_ **

“C’mon Tusk, put your back into it!”

“Let them have it, Rek!”

“Speak for yourself, Bre, you didn’t last five seconds—GAH!!”

“Less talking, more fighting, boys!”

Clone troopers were no strangers to physical training. Sometimes, they’d organize a few controlled brawls between squads, to both promote some friendly competition between clones, and to expand their combat experience.

Unfortunately, today, the only experience the 34th Legion had to learn was that being tossed like ragdolls really, _really_ hurt. Especially when the ones dishing out said ragdolling were enhanced humans equipped with Jump Kits.

And so it was that Natalia and Gardner found themselves jumping, weaving and even twirling around the twelve clone troopers that had stepped up to fight the Pilots, making liberal use of throws, grapples, punches and kicks to floor the dozen soldiers trying and failing to land any solid hits on the much nimbler opponents.

And all around, clone troopers cheered and shouted, encouraging their many brothers to put up any kind of fight. Their incentives, while appreciated, were far from effective.

A fact punctuated by Natalia putting the last clone standing’s neck on a leg lock, before flipping him over her body in a boosted spin and flinging him into the ground.

“And that’s… Game,” said Gardner through a few labored breaths as he took his helmet off and wiped the sweat off his brow, fist-bumping Natalia in victory before carefully helping the beaten clones off the ground, while off to the side Harper, Wolfe and Jacob readied themselves to assist with any wounds, and ADAM finished compiling the recordings of all the matches. “Phew… Alright, five rounds, that should be about enough, right?”

“It certainly _stops_ here, that’s for sure.”

The steely tone of the words drew the full attention of the crowd towards it, and to the Paladins’ dread, it was indeed their CO approaching with arms crossed and a disapproving look in her eyes, while beside her a clone captain his gaze solely on the troopers groaning in pain off to the side.

“Oh, uhh… H-Hey there, commander, good to… See you?”

“Gardner, what was the first thing I warned you of before we even came aboard this ship?”

“Yes ma’am, and I understand very well what this looks like, but! I have a perfect explanation for all of this.”

“And _what_ would that _be, lieutenant_?”

“This… Is just a teamwork exercise. See, we thought it’d be better to teach them how to operate together against highly mobile enemies… You know, just in case.”

“…”

“…”

“Forty laps around the hangar. Just for that shitty excuse. You as well, Nat. _Get to it_.”

And with the most miserable whine a human being could utter, both Natalia and Gardner dragged themselves into a jog, leaving their squad mates to snicker behind their backs. Just then, a voice called out on the ship’s internal broadcast system.

“ _Attention, Commander Elyse and Paladin Unit. Please report to the bridge. I repeat, Commander Elyse and Paladin Unit, please report to the bridge.”_

“Paladins, pack up. Natalia, Gardner, you too.”

“Oh thank God…”

“Don’t worry, you’ll pay my laps after this is done. Now move it.”

“Aye aye, ma’am…”

**-O-**

**_BRIDGE – FIVE MINUTES LATER_ **

When the seven Pilots arrived on the bridge, they found the usual bustle of the crew working diligently at their stations, but this time two figures stood at the forefront of the bridge’s main walkway, staring at the distorted blue-and-black vortex. One was Master Yoda, now sitting upon a small hover chair, with his cane carefully laid atop his lap. The other was clad in a jet-black uniform not unlike that of the high echelon of the ARES Division, but with the red highlights replaced with green and golden ones, the Frontier Army skull emblem proudly etched on the back of the long coat, and several medals adorning his chest.

With neatly trimmed short white hair, a veritable mane of a beard wrapped around his face, one deep hazel eye and one milky-white one, the only reason Lance Howe did not look a day past his fifties when he had already hit his seventies was due to the amazing medical advancements by Vinson Dynamics.

Both elders turned to the approaching Paladins, with Yoda letting out a cheerful chuckle at the sight of the two more disheveled Pilots further at the back, while Howe simply raised an eyebrow in curiosity. “Commander Elyse.”

“Captain Howe, Master Yoda,” she replied, giving both a respectable nod.

“I assume there is an explanation to this.”

“There is, captain, but we have more important things to think about, do we not?”

“Mhmhmhmhm. A valuable lesson, they most likely learned, no?” asked Yoda cheerfully, his laugh returning even stronger when Natalia and Gardner’s response was to groan loudly. “Still, thankful for your arrival, I am. Arriving onto our destination, we soon will.”

“ _All hands, brace for hyperspeed deceleration.”_

Not ten seconds after the announcement was made, a faint rumble made all in the bridge lurch slightly forward just as the vortex ahead of them gave way to normal space, revealing their destination.

It was unlike anything the Militia members had ever seen.

The planet was larger than any they had seen in the Frontier, with its surface covered in massive continuous lines of artificial lights, and not a single body of water visible from orbit. Thousands of small light dots, each likely a different spaceship hovering in orbit of the capital, moved slowly in a mesmerizing dance, while far closer to them were several tens of _Venator_ -class warships, arranged in perfectly orderly patterns, no doubt to safeguard the great capital of the galactic government. On each side of the _Solemnity_ , both the _Hippolyta_ and _Chronos_ hovered into view, their organic-shaped hulls contrasting heavily with the far more angular vessels that hovered about, huddled close enough to their guide ship that they would not be lost on the chaotic interstellar traffic.

“This is… Surreal…” muttered Elyse as she stared wide-eyed at the moving spectacle unfolding in front of her. Behind her, the rest of the Paladin Unit watched just as intently, with ADAM’s head swiveling to and fro as he meticulously recorded all into his data banks.

“It is quite a sight indeed,” replied Lance beside her, hiding his own surprise with a mask of professionalism. “To think such a sight was possible in the cosmos… It is a sobering thought. A reminder we are not alone.”

“A sobering thought, indeed,” added Master Yoda with a smile, turning his hover chair to face the commander and captain standing beside him. “Much, the Force teaches all Jedi. That we are all connected, its most basic teaching is. Even if not a part of it, together the Force has brought us.” And with a final bow of his head, Master Yoda smiled softly at the gathered humans. “And assist as best we can, we all shall.”

“And we are most grateful, Jedi Master.”

“Mhm. Now, to our transport, let us go. Keep our hosts waiting, we should not, hm?”

**-O-**

**_CORUSCANT AIR SPACE – ENROUTE TO REPUBLIC EXECUTIVE BUILDING_ **

The flight to the central offices was shockingly smooth and silent, at least to the Milky Way humans. When one travelled solely in air and spacecrafts with roaring engines, finding themselves aboard a shuttle with a propulsion system as silent as a whisper, it led to some initial apprehension. That feeling quickly vanished once the diplomatic party broke through the atmosphere and reached the planet-wide city beneath the clouds.

It was a horizon of steel and glass, with flying vehicles all traveling down perfectly ordained pathways, disappearing around and behind massive high rises that seemed to be a mix of dozens of different architectures. A few times, a military gunship would fly past them,

Throughout the travel, captain Lance and Yoda calmly talked with one another, sometimes gesticulating towards something outside, or just to the open air between the human and the alien. The Jedi Master, for his part, seemed content to answer the many casual questions the man posited to him, taking away the attention from the only two other representatives from the Fifth Fleet aboard the shuttle: Elyse… And ADAM.

And while the commander busied herself by simply looking out the window and taking in the sights, ADAM had a far more important role: transmit data back to the Fifth Fleet, and maintain both Lance and Elyse updated on their situation. For now, the latest update from Shatterglass confirmed that the fleet had successfully avoided detection, just jumped to three systems away from Coruscant, and were now holding position awaiting further instructions.

If things did not go as planned, at least they would not need to travel far to return “home”.

Still, optimism was important. And necessary.

“ _We’ll be arriving on the Republic Executive Building shortly, please standby,_ ” called out the pilot through the comms, prompting Lance and Elyse to look out through the windows of the shuttle and gaze at the approaching building near the apparent ground-level. And curiously enough, bar its obvious and massive size, the “Executive Building” was nothing more than a dome, with several open layers around its center where dozens of different ships were either landing, moored or taking off. Nevertheless, the sheer scale certainly pointed to its purpose: to show the opulence and power that the Galactic Republic wielded. Further in the horizon, behind the executive building was a far more grandiose building, this one mushroom shaped and higher into the air. Perhaps a meeting ground or related?

“Alright, let’s get ready for this,” spoke up Elyse as she rose from her seat, ADAM promptly joining her as the two moved to the front of the ship alongside Master Yoda and captain Lance as the shuttle gracefully and carefully Howered itself onto the open-air dock, landing with a soft _thud_ onto the metal runway. Once the exit ramp was Howered, the four passengers quickly filed out of the transport, with Master Yoda calmly motioning to an approaching entourage of several people.

Six of them wore long blue robes and fully concealing helmets, with metallic rifles slung over their shoulders with a strap. Clearly, they were a personal guard of sorts, here to protect the other three members of the group: a man with crystal blue eyes, short brown hair and a beard of equal color that seemed to challenge Howe’s for mass. He was dressed in simple-looking cloth robes, and a large, thick brown cloak draped around his body.

The second person was a young woman dressed in a gorgeous violet dress with branch-like jewel patterns, a purple cloak over her dress and an ornate golden neck brace and ornament holding her hair into a bun shape. She had a peaceful, amicable and almost disarming look to her, and her smile seemed to come naturally to her.

The final member of the entourage was one that Lance and Elyse quickly realized was the reason for the guard detail present: an old man, dressed in plain black robes and with a long crimson vest hanging from his shoulders. His hair line had long receded to the back of his head, and his silver-white hair both meshed perfectly with his almost pale skin tone, and served to reinforce the age this man had. His expression was peaceful, his stance relaxed, but there was an air of authority around him that made clear this man held power, both personal and bureaucratic.

“Chancellor Palpatine. A surprise it is, to have you meet us,” spoke up Yoda as he approached the group, his hover chair stopping a few paces away from meeting them. Said chancellor, in response, simply smiled and gave the small alien a respectful nod, folding his hands calmly in front of himself.

“Master Yoda, news of your safety and success are reason for much rejoicing, it felt only appropriate to personally greet your return to Coruscant,” replied Palpatine, before turning to face the two Pilots and ship captain standing to the side. “And of course, to both thank your saviors, and properly welcome them into our home.”

“It is an honor to meet you, Supreme Chancellor,” spoke Howe impeccably, giving the man a respectful bow. “I am captain Lance Howe of the Militia’s Fifth Fleet. These are Commander Elyse, leader of our fleet, and ADAM, one of the Pilots under her direct command.” Both Pilots gave equal bows, and when they raised themselves, found the bearded Jedi watching the latter in deep curiosity as he stroked his beard.

“A droid soldier? It is certainly a unique choice,” he spoke calmly. With a slight twitch to his head, ADAM turned to face the Jedi, his singular large glass eye reflecting some of the sunlight off of it.

“Similar classifications were given by clone troopers during our travels. However, I am not an artificial intelligence. I am a simulacrum, a human mind uploaded into a robotic chassis.”

“A human mind?” asked the woman in surprise, now eyeing the simulacrum just as intently as the bearded Jedi. “So were you a living person before?”

“That is correct.”

“Perhaps such discussions would be better left to a more private setting, would you not agree?” asked Palpatine, motioning to the building behind him. “A meeting room has already been arranged for our use. Shall we?”

**-O-**

**_REPUBLIC EXECUTIVE BUILDING – NEGOTIATIONS ROOM 12_ **

It had been almost exactly as Lance had expected it to be: a large, plain room, with a large table split into two different sides with six chairs on each side, and a massive window revealing the city skyline outside the building. Simple, effective, and a perfect way to remind any who entered here that they were negotiating with a political titan.

“Before we begin these talks, allow me to say that the Galactic Republic offers both its gratitude for your assistance in such dangerous endeavors, and our most sincere sympathies for the situation you find yourself in,” said Palpatine as the group filed into the room, the chancellor motioning the Militia representatives to one side of the table, while he, his chosen entourage and Master Yoda moved to the opposite. “I understand that the loss of one’s home is a tragic occurrence, and we stand ready to assist in any way possible.”

“We are thankful for your generosity and sympathy, Chancellor,” replied Howe as he sat on a chosen chair, with Elyse beside him and ADAM right after.

“Well, let us begin with proper introductions. I am Sheev Palpatine, Supreme Chancellor of the Republic.”

“I am Padmé Amidala, Senator and representative of the planet Naboo,” said the woman politely with a smile, before turning towards the last person in the room, the bearded man.

“Obi-Wan Kenobi, Master of the Jedi Order.”

“And I believe you’re already properly acquainted with Grand Master Yoda?” asked Palpatine as he motioned to the small green alien atop the hover chair, earning three nods of confirmation from the Militia members. “Then I believe we can properly begin our negotiations.”

“Very well.” And with just two words, Howe’s entire demeanor shifted: his posture, expression, gaze… All of them hardened into a more professional appearance, as he placed his crossed hands atop the table. “From what we understand, the Republic seems to be in conflict with a Separatist movement. Is that correct?”

“Yes, that is correct,” replied Padmé, her expression growing somber as she cast her gaze out the window. “For some time now the forces of the Confederacy have waged war with the Republic, with the stated purpose of seceding from the galactic government.”

“Their actions however, speak otherwise,” said Obi-Wan. “The Separatists have committed several crimes in their self-declared crusade for independence, endangering the lives of billions in the galaxy in the process. And as I am sure you’ve witnessed, they are not above utilizing underhanded tactics to achieve these goals.”

“Yes, we are… _Quite_ aware,” spoke Elyse venomously, memories of her battle with the pale assassin flashing in her mind. “The one we fought in Rugose, the woman wielding the swords. Was she a traitor Jedi?”

“No. Her name is Asajj Ventress, she is a Sith, an order of warriors who seek to destroy the Jedi and always lust for power and dominance. They had vanished for millennia, but have resurfaced in allegiance with the CIS.”

“Mm. Traitorous and deceitful, the Sith are. Many they have killed and destroyed in their quest for power. Surprising, their return is, but not their involvement in this war.”

Considering the very serious tone both of the Jedi used when describing the woman and her possible associates, Howe found wise to not dismiss such claims. He had received a brief report on the more “mystical” of Master Yoda’s abilities, and his talk with the diminutive Jedi on their way down had given him a bit more insight on _who_ and _what_ the Jedi were and were capable of.

And while the term “space magic” was not something he’d use, he did admit the Paladin Unit had some merit calling it so.

The captain took one moment to gather his thoughts, gently stroking his beard as the gears turned in his mind (and Elyse had to stifle a smile when she saw Padmé give Kenobi an amused look for it), until finally he withdrew a small holo-emitter from his coat and gingerly placed it on the desk, pressing a small button on its side. A moment later, a projection of several images appeared, all of them showing the same thing: battles, war zones, and select images of planets and factions.

Most prominently, the IMC and Frontier Army emblems.

“Our home galaxy, the Milky Way, was not as widely explored as yours,” began explaining Howe, as small star charts began appearing alongside the many images. “Nor have we encountered sapient civilizations during our expansions. In the end, we humans colonized a great expanse of planets that we came to call the Frontier, a stretch of space teeming with resources and easily-colonizable planets. However, the mega-corporations of the Core Worlds grew too prideful and greedy in their needs, and years after their colonization efforts had bore fruit, they returned to claim it all for themselves, uncaring of the people that had made the Frontier worlds into their home.”

As he spoke, the images and videos began scrolling past. Of course, they had been careful to use only clips that featured no Titans, but for the rest? All was left in.

IMC soldiers dragging colonists into mass deportation transports.

Terraforming and seizing of lands.

The Colony G21 Massacre.

With each recording of every atrocity, the expression of the Republicans grew more horrified. Amidala seemed to be the most affected, her eyes wide and mouth agape as she witnessed the IMC’s tactics against unarmed civilians. Kenobi and Master Yoda seemed saddened if nothing else, but their expressions remained schooled, with only their eyes betraying their emotions. Palpatine…

It was a strange thing to see. Overtly, he seemed just as appalled as the senator. His body language and expression made that very clear. But there seemed to be… Something else amidst it. And for all the experience both Elyse and Howe had amassed over the years, they could not tell _what else_ the Supreme Chancellor thought of it.

Their answer would only come many, _many_ years later. And too late to make a difference.

“To combat this threat to our freedom, the Frontier Militia was formed,” finally spoke Howe as he replaced the recordings with images of the Militia’s fledgling fleet and military, and their early battles against the IMC. “Nothing more than dreamers with weapons, doing their best to fight against a foe far greater than them. And for the first few years, all they could do was stall the end. It all changed at the Battle of Demeter, however, where the Militia inflicted a devastating defeat to the IMC that saw the corporation’s influence shrink to near nothingness over the period of five years. The subsequent victory in the Battle of Typhon saw the rise of the New Frontier Federation, and the removal of all IMC forces from our space… The war still continued, however.”

“Captain… For how long has this war lasted?” asked Amidala in uncertainty, her tone making clear that she dreaded the answer.

“Fifty years.”

Elyse’s voice was barely above a whisper when she answered, staring transfixed at the holographic images. Her brilliant silver eyes shone, both with their own cybernetic light, and with the pure, undiluted _fury_ burning inside them. It made the Republic representatives painfully aware of what kind of soldier… What kind of _warrior_ sat across from them.

“Fifty years the IMC has haunted us, come for our home time and again. And for fifty years we’ve beaten them back.” The commander turned back towards the delegates, her expression softening the slightest amount. “To you, we would be Separatists. But we don’t seek chaos. We wish only for our freedom, to be let be and not under the thrall of any.”

“And that leads us to our current conundrum, Chancellor,” added Howe as he shut off and retrieved the holo-emitter. “We know of the consequences of our actions upon entry into this galaxy, and that we’ve angered a political power far greater than us.”

“Then what would you request of the Republic, captain?”

“Political asylum. That we be taken as refugees, allowed haven in one of your colonies, or an empty world fit for habitation, so that we may rebuild our homes.”

At those words, Palpatine hummed thoughtfully, his fingers splayed together. “While I and the Republic understand your plight, you must understand that colonization is not a simple matter, captain. The Republic represents hundreds of governments, all of them with defined territories and expansion requests. Not to mention the refugees caused by the war itself.” Once he finished speaking, the chancellor’s expression both grew hardened and saddened, his gaze shifting equally between the three Militia members. “I apologize. While I can acquiesce to our request of asylum, a colony world is beyond my immediate power.”

“Would our fleet be allowed port on Coruscant?”

“That is certainly feasible. Centax-3, one of our moons, is currently being utilized as a general shipyard and colony. Your ships would be more than welcome to dock onto its facilities, and your crew would be allowed to utilize its civilian facilities, under proper monitoring of course... But I must be frank to both you and the commander, captain Howe: our charity can go only so far.” Hearing the end of his declaration, Senator Amidala turned and watched her superior in shock, almost shooting from her seat.

“Chancellor?!”

“Mmm… Sadly, agree with the Chancellor, I must.”

“Senator Amidala, while we are willing to assist refugees, you must understand that we still require to finance both the war and relief supplies. Cruel as it may sound, we cannot maintain long-term charitable efforts for groups that are not direct citizens of the Republic,” replied Palpatine, his voice now holding a far greater tone of finality to it. Beside him, Kenobi nodded solemnly.

“The Chancellor is correct, Senator. Many other planets suffer under the ambition of the Confederacy. Republic planets. We must care for our citizens first and foremost, even if our newcomers have their own plight.”

“That is why we are open to assist.”

The four delegates returned their attention to captain Howe, each staring at the man in varying degrees of surprise.

“Captain…?”

“It… Is of agreement of the fleet that even under asylum, we are targets. And strangers we may be to this galaxy, we could not call ourselves true Militia members if we turned our backs to the suffering of others, especially when they suffer just as we did.”

“We come from all walks of life, delegates,” continued Elyse as she withdrew her knife from its sheath and twirled it expertly between her fingers. “The Militia refused none. All were accepted: Murderers, pirates, smugglers… Mercenaries.” And when she saw the spark of realization in their eyes, the commander grasped that chance with every ounce of her strength, and prayed it would work. “We will not march to our deaths for you. But the Fifth Fleet pledges to fight alongside the Republic to see the end of this war… And in return, the Republic would compensate our services with access to shipyards, certain supplies… And a possible future colony.”

Her words, impassioned as they were, served to bring silence onto the table as the four Republic members mulled over their declaration, though none seemed more eager than Palpatine himself, who now stared at the Pilots and captain with a new and strange calculating gaze, almost as if measuring and weighing any and all advantages the Fifth Fleet could grant him.

The silence was quickly broken, though curiously not by any member of the meeting per se, but instead by the melodious chime of Obi-Wan’s commlink indicating an oncoming transmission. With a muttered apology, the Jedi Master withdrew his communicator from his robes and placed it onto the table, allowing the image of two distinct people to come to life: one, a young girl with horns similar to the Council member Elyse had met, though wearing a very… _Minimalist_ style of clothing. The other was a young man clad in an armored brown vest, with wavy blond hair, ashen blue eyes and a scar running down his right eye, who seemed to have a very downcast expression. “ _Master. I apologize for the interruption._ ”

“Anakin. I am glad to see you are well and healed,” replied Kenobi with a warm smile, while beside him Amidala’s own smile returned quickly at the sight of the young man. “And congratulations are in order, of course. Your resourcefulness has served you well in Bothawui.”

“It is very good to see you in better health indeed, Master Skywalker,” added Palpatine as he motioned towards the hologram. “Your victory has allowed us to maintain the safety of a very important ally.”

“ _Thank you, master…_ ”

Hearing the sullen reply, Kenobi’s expression shifted into one of concern in a split second as he beheld the hologram of his former apprentice. “You look troubled.”

“ _I’ve… Lost R2 in the field. We couldn’t find any trace of him after the battle…_ ”

“A friend you have lost today, young Skywalker. Yet allow it to ground you, let your feelings you should not,” said Yoda in a calm and even tone, waving his hand lightly as he spoke. “Allow it to let go, you must.”

Hearing those words, the young man’s stance perked up, taking a step closer to his communicator. “ _I could take a squadron out, search and track him down!”_

“Anakin, with all due respect, R2 is just a droid. You know attachment is not acceptable for a Jedi.”

It was only the fact she had held her peace the entire call that allowed Amidala to see the way Elyse shifted uncomfortably at Obi-Wan’s words, something that filled her with both curiosity and worry.

“ _It’s not just that, master…”_ replied the young man, and for a second his bravado lost its momentum as he averted his eyes from his teacher. “ _Umm, how should I put this… I… Didn’t wipe R2’s memory banks…_ ”

“What?!”

It was a rare sight to see Obi-Wan Kenobi raise his voice in surprise. Today, the Militia members were greeted with specifically such a sight, as the Jedi almost catapulted the chair he had been sitting on into the wall.

“You mean to tell me he is _still_ programmed with all our strategies and base locations?! If the Separatists find him… Anakin, what possessed you into never erasing that droid’s memory banks?!”

“ _Master Obi-Wan, the information inside R2 has helped us in several situations to this day_ ,” spoke up the young girl, in what Howe realized was a quick attempt to cover for the young

man. Thankfully, said attempt proved successful at placating some of Kenobi’s anger, though dissatisfaction was still present in his face.

“Then find that droid, Anakin. Our necks might very well depend on it--”

“Allow us to assist then.”

Elyse’s voice drew the attention of the four present and the two calling through the communicator, and to their surprise her face was a mask of determination.

“As our first act to prove our worth and capabilities, allow us to send one of our teams to assist in the search for this droid.”

“Indeed,” added Howe with a satisfied smile. “After all, recovering critical and sensitive data before it fell into enemy hands is certainly a proper way to showcase our abilities and worth as mercenaries. Would you not agree?”

Once more, Palpatine returned to his pensive state, before finally giving a firm nod of approval. “Very well, I shall allow this. But pray tell, commander, have you any teams prepared?” And to the Chancellor’s surprise, Howe merely smiled before withdrawing his own communicator, taping onto it once to reveal a hologram of its own, but rather than a humanoid figure, it instead depicted an emblem of a round, stubby doll, and the word “GOLEM” beneath the figure.

“ _This is LEO. Your orders, captain?_ ”

“You are cleared for launch. Coordinates will be delivered shortly.”

“ _Understood, sir. Golem Unit, moving out._ ”

**-O-**

**_G.A.R. WARSHIP RESOLUTE, ANAKIN SKYWALKER’S FLAGSHIP – SPIRANA SYSTEM – TWO DAYS LATER…_ **

“I don’t like this…”

“Yes, master, you’ve stated this a few times now.”

“General, with respect, we should trust in the Chancellor’s and General Kenobi’s decision.”

Captain Rex and Ahsoka Tano found themselves yet again attempting to calm down the anxious Jedi Knight pacing inside the bridge like a caged gundark. Ever since the Supreme Chancellor had given the news that a “contracted mercenary unit” would be joining them on the search for R2, Anakin’s mood had taken quite a plummet, not helped by the fact his replacement astromech droid, R3-S6 (or as Ahsoka and Anakin had taken to call him, “Goldie” and “Stubbie” respectively), had just arrived a few hours ago.

And now a bunch of hired guns who most likely cared only for money would take part in the mission. How could he trust them?

“I still think we should have left immediately and just left these mercenaries behind,” spoke Anakin sourly as he stared yet again at the empty space ahead of his flagship.

“Master, maybe if we give them a chance, they could end up surprising you,” said Ahsoka in a more cheerful tone as she stepped forward to stand beside Anakin. “We haven’t even seen them yet!”

“I know, Snips, I know… But still…”

“Besides, we know the debris field is recent enough that it won’t have been picked apart by scavengers yet,” added Rex, giving his commanding officer a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “We’ll find that droid, sir. You can count on it.”

With a deep sigh, Anakin tried to rub some of the weariness out of his eyes, when suddenly…

“General, I’m picking up some strange energy readings in our scanners…” called out Yularen from where he stood, leaning over the seat of one of the bridge crewmembers. “I’ve never seen anything like it before.” As Anakin made to question the Admiral, something in the corner of his vision caught his attention, while the Force wavered and warned him of _something_ incoming.

And so Anakin, Ahsoka, Rex and Yularen watched as, just ahead of the _Resolute_ , space seemed to warp and distort onto itself, small arcs of lighting erupting from the epicenter of the phenomenon, until finally, in a bright multi-colored flash, a ship simply _appeared_ ahead of them.

It was quite small, perhaps the size of a smaller corvette, but it looked unlike any ship Anakin had ever seen. It was pitch black, angular, and obviously heavily armed. Yet the most striking thing about the craft was its avian shape, like that of a bird-of-prey, ready to strike its target.

“ _This is the Golem Unit, of the Fifth Fleet’s_ Corvo _dropship, requesting permission to dock for rendezvous with General Anakin Skywalker of the_ Resolute _. Please respond.”_

“… Any comments you want to add, Snips?”

“… They still might be friendly.”

**~O~**

**It’s finished, fuckos.**

**Just kidding, I love you all. Anyway, here it is!**

**I’ve tinkered with the timeline, as you can see, so the events of “Downfall of a Droid”/”Duel of the Droids” takes place here instead of after the hunt and battle against the Malevolence. Because I am a god-like being and I can do that shit in my own stories, and all of you are powerless to stop me *does Default Dance***

**Also I said it would be a shorter chapter, and yet it _still_ ended up being 7k+ words. I need to learn some damn self-control already…**

**Well, anyways, since all of you folks have been good beans, and because it got a LOT of attention on SpaceBattles (seriously y’all on FanFiction Net, step up your games of praising and adoring me like the folks at SB do… Just kidding, no need for that, I love y’all regardless), I’ll be doing chapter 2 of Re-GX already!**

**…**

**That is… _After_ I write a special little thing. And what can I say about it… Other than it bites.**

**Stay tuned~**

**Author's Note:**

> This got done faster than I expected… Huh.  
> Regardless, as promised, here it is. Next upload will be the next “Discard Blade” chapter.  
> However, a few closing thoughts:  
> First, is that I’ve begun streaming as a way to relax and wind down! You can find me at https://www.twitch.tv/thelandmaster45, and for now I’m doing a full playthrough of SD Gundam Cross Rays!  
> Which leads me to the other two points.  
> Secondly, I’ve been thinking of restarting progress in “Iron Flower Eternal”, since Cross Rays put me in a Gundam mood again. But that’ll depend on the wishes of my followers. So I give you the option: I can either continue “Titanomachy” alongside “Burning Fire” and “Discarded Blade”, or I can leave this as a teaser/entry, and go back to “Iron Flower Eternal”. Votes away!  
> Thirdly… Well, as I’ve announced quite some time ago, I’m unemployed. And right now, I see this as an opportunity to start an old wish of mine of making writing as my breadwinner, and add to that some game streaming on the side. For now, nothing will be set in stone, but… I’ll admit it’d be something I’d definitely like to turn into my job (especially since, with my followers being primarily from the US or outside countries and our money being very undervalued, 200 dollars a month would cover all my bills), especially since writing has been such a massive blast for me than ever before, and how much positive feedback my projects have garnered. And I thank you all for this, because it pushes me forward every day, even through the writer’s block and bouts of sadness.  
> So yeah, nothing official for now, but I leave the thought in the open there. I’ll probably have a true decision closer to the end of the month. Something like a ko-fi or similar.  
> Regardless, I’d like to thank all my readers and followers for the support you give me, and I wish you all a happy Spookyween!  
> PS: I post a Burning Fire chapter and almost immediately after a Berserk chapter drops, maybe I should write more of it.


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